tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:39:51 +0000GamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesMoviesDungeons and DragonsDnDBoard GamesFantasyTelevisionScience FictionComic BooksBoardgamesSFVideo GamesMovie TrailersSuper HeroesSavage WorldsGeekerati RadioTelevision ShowsCartoonsCriticismHuluLovecraftKung Fu FilmsPulpfilm reviews4th EditionDndNextHong Kong FilmsJody LindkeViral VideoAnimationHumorStar WarsAdvanced Dungeons and DragonsFantasy Flight GamesHorrorInternetelevisionMartial ArtsWizards of the CoastGary GygaxComic Book MoviesReverb Gamers 2012Robert E HowardSCI FIAction MoviesChampionsBlogging Northwest SmithClassic FilmsNorthwest SmithCall of CthulhuChristmasFilmic Cultural SelectivityGame DesignKenneth HitePaizoSteve Jackson GamesVillains and VigilantesWarhammerCatherine Lucille MooreConanDisneyDragon AgeBooksC L MooreFilm IndustryFlash GordonMarvelTSRTunnels and TrollsWar GamesWargamingAppendix NCthulhuFilmsGaming with KidsGamma WorldMusicObituariesOld School RevivalPulp FictionReviewsTom MoldvayVictory Point GamesparentingComedyComicsCopyrightFighting FantasyGamebooksGreen RoninInternetMargaret WeisPlanetary RomancePulpsStar TrekTor Books#RPGaDayAnimeBaseballCard GamesChildren's BooksCollectible MiniaturesComic ConDungeon Crawl ClassicsDungeon Crawl GamesKickstarterMichael MoorcockMiniature WargamesOrigin AwardsPop CultureSuperhero 2044Things We Think About GamesTronWeb SeriesYou TubeZombie Apocalypsenicnup5th Edition80s FilmsBlogTalkRadioDC HeroesEdgar Rice BurroughsFan FilmsGamersIndie GamesMatt ForbeckNewsPoeRPGsSF SignalVampiresWil WheatonWilliam ShatnerZombiesnecessary Evil80sAngry Robot BooksAnne ThompsonBuck RogersCthulhu ClausDeadlandsDifferent WorldsDonald SaxmanFantastic FourFireflyGeneration XGoldGreen HornetGrognardiaGumshoeHalloweenHeroquestHistoryHobby Games: The 100 BestJeff DeeJohn Carter of MarsJohn ScalziKing of RPGsLeigh BrackettLiterary CriticismMMORPGNBCNinjasNovelsPopular MedievalismSolomon KaneSpeak GeekSporadic Geek UpdateSupergameTVTalk Like a Pirate DayTwin Suns EntertainmentWGA StrikeWeird FictionWuxia300Alien InvasionsAlternate Reality GamesAppleAtlas GamesBlogging XBuster CrabbeChaosiumChris RobersonClassic TVCommercialsCultureCyberpunkDave MorrisDavid ChuteDeath RaceDiana Jones AwardDonnie YenDragonlanceEndGameFacebookFamily Games: The 100 BestFelicia DayFeng ShuiFritz LeiberGAMAGaming PaperGaming SuppliesGenConGeorge LucasHarry DresdenHasbroInternet MemesJack HermanJackie ChanJeff TidballJess HartleyJoss WhedonKen St. AndreKobold QuarterlyLankhmarLegends and LabyrinthsLorraine WilliamsMike PondsmithMy Los AngelesNic CageNoirOSRPathfinderPiratesPodcastPulp 2.0R Talsorian GamesRethinking 4eRulesSPISam RaimiSeamus CooperSlipstreamSpace GamerSteampunkSupercrewTelevision IndustryThe PrisonerTitansGravedocumentariesfilmsmallville40kAGEActionAdamant EntertainmentAlan MooreArtistsAsian CinemaAvatarAvengersBatmanBattleshipBeowulfBlackgateCam BanksCandy LandCapcomCartooiningChris TaylorChristy MarxChuck NorrisCineratiClark Ashton SmithClassical MusicDCDIYDVDsDave ArnesonDavid GemmellDays of WonderDice ChuckersDollhouseDon BassingthwaiteDonkey KongDragon MagazineDragon WarriorsEberronEncountersEragonEvil HatFandomFiascoForbesFormula OneFrank MillerFrankfurt SchoolFree EnterpriseFriendshipGURPsGame ExpectationsGames WorkshopGeeksGeorge R.R. 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It combines the simplicity of play of early games in the hobby with the customization and player choice of the modern game. It is easy to learn, but has a depth I've yet to tap out. I've run a number of campaigns and am looking forward to getting an <i>East Texas University</i>&nbsp;game running in the next couple of weeks.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qF1r9R_nUZY/S1YwtN3ziLI/AAAAAAAAARg/aUxT-WVvNUM/s1600/Savage%2BWorlds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qF1r9R_nUZY/S1YwtN3ziLI/AAAAAAAAARg/aUxT-WVvNUM/s320/Savage%2BWorlds.jpg" width="233" /></a></div><br /><br />This week, at the rpg hobby's largest convention GENCON, Pinnacle gave a presentation discussing their upcoming projects for the year. They are revisiting some of their best settings and are expanding their offerings. One key new offering comes in around the 7 minute 30 second mark that I think presents a good marketing strategy for the company. Pinnacle has released some excellent "genre" sourcebooks over the years, but when it comes to adventure support that has tended to either be "setting" specific or digital only. It now appears that they'll be doing an adventure compilation for each genre with less setting specificity. Their first one deals with...well...maybe you should just watch the video to see all the exciting things they've got planned. Make sure to watch the last minute of the video as well. It's a doozy.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sR15nklE2ps" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/08/pinnacle-announces-their-projects-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-1916322453216748620Sun, 02 Aug 2015 01:55:00 +00002015-08-01T19:48:28.515-07:00GamesGamingHugosHugo Ballot: My #1sI wasn't going to post my Hugo Award Ballot, or any portion of it, but then I saw John O'Neill's ballot over at Black Gate and I felt compelled to share mine. Like John, I'm only going to share my top vote in each category. Unlike John, I won't be writing a long post on why I voted the way I did. I'm happy to discuss the issue in person, but I find that the internet is no more conducive than the letters page of a Fanzine to productive dialog. <br /><br />I will say that these are my honest opinions of the ballot as it exists. It is not my opinion of what the "best of SF/F last year was," and I've tried to remove politics from the equation. I will be the first to admit that my gaming hobby affected my voting once or twice. That said, there are a number of votes for No Award that are higher than I would expect when voting for a year's best award.<br /><br /><div class="h7 " style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; max-width: 100000px; outline: none; padding-bottom: 0px;" tabindex="-1"><div class="Bk" style="border-radius: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 0px; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative; width: 859px;"><div class="G3 G2" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); border-radius: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div id=":14v"><div class="adn ads" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 8px;"><div class="gs" style="margin-left: 44px;"><div class="ii gt m14ec6f32754e7a7b adP adO" id=":14f" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative;"><div class="a3s" id=":14g" style="overflow: hidden;">Best Novel<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp;1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Skin Game by Jim Butcher (Roc Books)</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>Best Novella<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; -----------------------</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No Award</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>Best Novelette<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------</span><br /><div style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale by Rajnar Vajra (Analog, Jul/Aug 2014)</span></div>&nbsp; <br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Short Story</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------</span><br /><div style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;A Single Samurai by Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen)</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Related Work</span><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF Ken Burnside (Riding the Red<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Horse, Castalia House)<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Graphic Story</span><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery</span><br /><br />Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Edge of Tomorrow&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)</span><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Flash: Pilot teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg &amp; Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg &amp; Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television; The CW)</span><br /><br />Best Professional Editor (Short Form)<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Jennifer Brozek<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; <br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Professional Editor (Long Form)</span><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Toni Weisskopf</span><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <br />Best Professional Artist<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Julie Dillon<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <br />Best Semiprozine<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Lightspeed Magazine</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span>Best Fanzine<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Black Gate<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; <br />Best Fancast<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;No Award</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Best Fan Writer</span><br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;No Award</span><br /><br />Best Fan Artist<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">&nbsp;Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------</span><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; No Vote &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <br /><br />The John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo)<br /><br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Rank&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ----------------------------<br />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 1 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Wesley Chu<br />&nbsp; <br /><div class="yj6qo"></div></div></div><div class="hi" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom-left-radius: 1px; border-bottom-right-radius: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></div></div><div class="ajx" style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="gA gt acV" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><div class="gB xu" style="border-top-width: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="ip iq" style="clear: both; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="h7 ie nH oy8Mbf" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; max-width: 100000px; outline: none; padding-bottom: 0px;" tabindex="-1"><div class="Bk" style="border-radius: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 0px; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative; width: 859px;"><div class="G3 G2" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); border-radius: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div id=":140"><div class="adn ads" style="border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 8px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/08/i-wasnt-going-to-post-my-hugo-award.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-5262492781396576341Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:09:00 +00002015-07-29T15:09:05.450-07:00CyberpunkGamesGamingKickstartermechaMektonR Talsorian GamesRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesWitcher Table Top RPG Coming from CD PROJEKT RED and R.TALSORIAN GAMES<i><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s-V2MRjc-7Y/VblHfie-iwI/AAAAAAAAHjA/Bx9SRfa_28A/s1600/Witcher%2BRPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s-V2MRjc-7Y/VblHfie-iwI/AAAAAAAAHjA/Bx9SRfa_28A/s640/Witcher%2BRPG.jpg" width="640" /></a></i><br />It was <a href="http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/54746-CD-PROJEKT-RED-and-R-TALSORIAN-GAMES-Announce-The-Witcher-Role-Playing-Game" target="_blank">recently announced </a>on the CD Projekt Red forums that they had come to an agreement with R Talsorian Games regarding the production of a table top role playing game for <i>The Witcher.</i> According to the announcement:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div>Together with R.Talsorian Games, makers of the hit pen and paper role-playing system Cyberpunk 2020, we are pleased to announce an agreement to develop The Witcher Role-Playing Game -- the go-to tabletop Witcher experience for pen and paper RPG enthusiasts.</div><div><br /> </div><div>The Witcher Role-Playing Game will allow tabletop RPG fans to re-create an array of characters known from the Witcher universe and live out entirely new adventures set within the world of Geralt of Rivia. Powered by Fuzion, the same ruleset that made Cyberpunk 2020 gain worldwide player acclaim, The Witcher Role-Playing Game will feature a myriad of spells, rituals, and curses; favorite gear and items from the entire Witcher series including a bestiary of devilish monsters players can face during their adventures. The system will provide all the necessary tools to create and play out your own adventures and become everything from a battle-hardened monster slayer to a merchant kingpin controlling a vast network of contacts.</div><div><br /> </div><div>The Witcher Role-Playing Game is currently slated for a mid 2016 release. More information about the system, price and availability will be provided at a later point in time.</div></blockquote>I am simultaneously excited and ambivalent about this project, due largely to the involvement of R Talsorian Games. Before I get into my reasons for ambivalence, I'd like to highlight why I'm excited about R Talsorian's involvement in this project.&nbsp;<br /><br />I think that R Talsorian has historically been one of the most creative and forward looking companies in the entire role playing game industry. The company was founded in 1985 and was one of the first companies to bring Anime style gameplay into the hobby with their <a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/140273/mekton" target="_blank"><i>Mekton</i></a> (1985) role playing game. The game had a relatively intuitive system that allowed for ease of play and customization of individual mechs. It also introduced players to a setting inspired by the classic <i>Mobile Suit Gundam</i> anime. This was quickly followed by the release of&nbsp; <a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpg/923/teenagers-outer-space-1st-2nd-3rd-editions" target="_blank"><i>Teenagers from Outer Space</i></a> (TFOS -- 1987), a role playing game that mirrored high school romance anime and featured a simple system that was good for introductory games.<br /><br />The same year that TFOS was released, R Talsorian published its <i>Cyberpunk </i>game. While this game had some mechanics that were inspired by earlier games (the lifepath system is similar to <i>Traveller</i>), it had two major effects on the industry. First, it provided the market with its first "attitude" role playing game. <i>Cyberpunk</i> was a game written with style that evoked an attitude. This design feature would go on to influence the World of Darkness series of games, as would the rules for Cyberpsychosis which emulated the loss of humanity one feels as one acquires more cyberware and learns that "metal is better than meat." You can see echoes of this system in the Humanity trait in <i>Vampire</i>. R Talsorian's <i>Cyberpunk</i> game was a cornerstone moment in the industry and game designer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pondsmith" target="_blank">Mike Pondsmith</a> is to be praised for the inspiration.<br /><br />R Talsorian's innovation didn't stop there. Their <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2370/Castle-Falkenstein?it=1" target="_blank"><i>Castle Falkenstein</i></a> game was one of the first Steampunk game, and still the best one. That's making quite a statement given that there are several good Steampunk games around, but it is Pondsmith's ability to infuse mood into a setting and to incorporate mechanics that fit that mood that set <i>Castle Falkenstein </i>apart. The company also released new editions of <i>Mekton</i> that were compatible with <i>Cyberpunk</i>, games based on <i>Dragonball Z</i>, <i>Bubblegum Crisis, </i>and <i><a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpg/4111/armored-trooper-votoms-role-playing-game" target="_blank">Armored Trooper Votoms</a>. </i>There was even a short stint where R Talsorian partnered with Hero games to release a "Fuzion" powered version of <i>Champions.</i> The partnership seemed natural, two successful Bay Area companies working together, but ended up doing some short-term damage to the <i>Champions</i> brand. This is too bad, as the Fuzion version of the game is quite fun to play and easier for new gamers to pick up and play.<br /><br />Man, I love this company and their products.<br /><br />But...back in 2013 I backed the latest version of the <i>Mekton</i> role playing game. It has not yet been published and updates have become scarce from the company. I'm not worried about the project, but I do wish communication was better. And I've got no fear that anyone is running away with a Kickstarter fortune. The <i>Mekton</i> game raised a respectable amount of money, but no one is getting rich off of it. I also understand that a part of the reason for the lack of communication is that R Talsorian has been working with CD Projekt Red on a new <i>Cyberpunk</i> computer game. <br /><br />But it's hard to get excited about a game when I'm still waiting for another game to come out...one I've already paid for.<br /><br />That said, I'm pretty jazzed and eagerly await the release of <i>The Witcher</i> table top game. Even though I still think it's a<a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/10/25/third-base" target="_blank"> pretty silly name for a franchise</a>.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/witcher-table-top-rpg-coming-from-cd.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-2084850998309209864Tue, 28 Jul 2015 23:02:00 +00002015-07-28T16:02:14.900-07:00GamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsSaving ThrowTitansGraveThe Evolution of Savage Worlds Damage and Effects: Toward a Faster, Furiouser, and Funner Process.When I had my first opportunity to see <i>Savage Worlds</i> in action at a Gen Con demonstration in 2002, I was blown away. There were two things that jumped out at me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ewHGkWJ5Qxk/VbfuTL3TXBI/AAAAAAAAHiE/h3Ha2n5bah0/s1600/Savage%2BWorlds%2B1st.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ewHGkWJ5Qxk/VbfuTL3TXBI/AAAAAAAAHiE/h3Ha2n5bah0/s320/Savage%2BWorlds%2B1st.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><br />First was the bravery of Shane and crew at Pinnacle. The gaming industry was in the midst of the d20 boom, products like d20 <i>Stargate</i> and d20 <i>Everquest</i> were being released, and it looked like the entire hobby would be Hero or d20 based. Even Green Ronin's innovative <i>Mutants and Masterminds</i> game was d20 adjacent and based on the OGL. For a company, especially a mid-range company that would be more vulnerable to shifts in the market winds, to release a new system in that environment was a truly brave move. Doubly brave considering the push-back they eventually received on their <i>Deadlands</i> d20 line when fans failed to notice that future products were double stat-ed for d20 and <i>Classic</i> rules sets.<br /><br />Second was how the game lived up to the "Fast! Furious! Fun!" tagline on the cover. If you take the time to watch any of the how to play videos from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/SavingThrowShow" target="_blank">Saving Throw</a> or Wil Wheaton's<a href="http://geekandsundry.com/shows/titansgrave/" target="_blank"> TitansGrave</a> series on Geek &amp; Sundry, you will notice that roleplaying games can bog down during combat pretty quickly. This is even the case with good Game Masters (like Wheaton) and experienced gamers (like the Saving Throw crew). <i>Savage Worlds</i> isn't immune to this problem, but it is suffers from it less than many other systems. Combat in the game is definitely Fast and Furious. Whether it is Fun can depend on the Game Master and Players, but I think the default is yes.<br /><br /><i>Savage Worlds</i> was designed to be able to handle combats of a relatively large nature in very little time and to achieve this goal it incorporated a couple of key mechanics. The first was the use of different categories for different kinds of characters. Characters who are meant to be fodder, or at least easier to defeat than others, are classified as "Extras" and those who are meant to stick around a while - like the Player's characters - are called "Wild Cards." It's a system inspired by games like <i>Feng Shui</i>, but it's a very effective system. The second way that <i>Savage Worlds </i>speeds up combat is through its Keep It Simple/Is It Simple Enough philosophy. A perfect example of this is the "Up, Down, or Off the Table" principle of combat (pg 68 of Savage Worlds Deluxe HC) which was the underlying reason for the<a href="https://www.peginc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SW_FAQ_May_2015.pdf" target="_blank"> recent change to the game's "Shaken" rules</a>. This rules change isn't the first relatively major change in <i>Savage Worlds' </i>combat system and I'd like to take you through many of those changes to show you how the game has changed in order to keep things moving Fast! and Furious! in order to maximize the Fun!<br /><br />In the 2003 edition of the game (which you can play using the v3 of the <a href="http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/swTestDrive%28v3.0%29.pdf" target="_blank">Test Drive Rules</a>), combat worked in the following way. A player rolled to hit. If the player hit the opponent, then they had to keep track of how much they hit that opponent by and for each 4 points over the number needed the player added +2 to the damage dealt to an opponent. This damage was resisted by Toughness and could be "soaked" if the victim spent a "Benny" to make the roll. If a player took more than 3 wounds, then that character would suffer the effects of a knockout blow. The effects of this knockout blow depended on the amount of damage the attack did while the character was at three wounds. For example, Hugh Manley has taken 3 damage from attacks earlier in combat. He suffers another attack and it would do 2 points of damage. This would leave Hugh incapacitated, but Hugh could spend a "Benny" to soak the damage to prevent the knockout effect.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ekPu-Ey9NF0/VbgDHLcq_-I/AAAAAAAAHiU/BYjenQmbzeA/s1600/Savage%2BWorlds%2BRevised.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ekPu-Ey9NF0/VbgDHLcq_-I/AAAAAAAAHiU/BYjenQmbzeA/s320/Savage%2BWorlds%2BRevised.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><br />This system was fast, but probably wasn't fast enough for the designers because by the time that the 2004<a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/44837/savage-worlds-revised-second-edition" target="_blank"> Revised Edition</a>, the bonus damage had been changed from&nbsp;+2 "per raise" to "+1d6 per raise." Given that the average damage of a d6 is 3.5 and that these dice could "ace" (be rolled again and added on a 6) it made it possible to do more damage. The system for incapacitation remained the same for this edition.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4UY5GbQAbM0/VbgE9M_DrBI/AAAAAAAAHig/lVXXzUAiKy4/s1600/Savage-Worlds%2BExplorers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4UY5GbQAbM0/VbgE9M_DrBI/AAAAAAAAHig/lVXXzUAiKy4/s1600/Savage-Worlds%2BExplorers.png" /></a></div>Counting how many successes one has achieved, and rolling an additional number of d6s equal to that number, can be time consuming. This is likely why the team changed the rule again in the <a href="https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/43702/savage-worlds-explorers-edition" target="_blank">Explorer's Edition</a> in 2008. You can play this edition using <a href="http://savagepedia.wikispaces.com/file/view/Savage%20Worlds%20Test%20Drive%20v6.pdf/94716624/Savage%20Worlds%20Test%20Drive%20v6.pdf" target="_blank">v6.0 of the Test Drive Rules</a>. In this edition, the attacker rolled +1d6 if he or she rolled any raises, but only an additional +1d6. Using the older Incapacitation rules though, this might still end up bogging things down. With this new edition Players made an "incapacitation roll" when their character takes more than their three wound allotment. Now, instead of comparing the amount of damage from the final attack against a chart and deciding whether to soak the damage, the player would decide whether to soak or make an incapacitation roll where if the character rolled high enough then it would still be active. This system was quicker than before and worked pretty well.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mqbl546MePM/VbgHAtF2yzI/AAAAAAAAHis/s3uuX76P2OA/s1600/Savage%2BWorlds%2BDeluxe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mqbl546MePM/VbgHAtF2yzI/AAAAAAAAHis/s3uuX76P2OA/s320/Savage%2BWorlds%2BDeluxe.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><br /><br />Then <i>Necessary Evil </i>came out, and with it characters with enough Vigor to almost always get a raise on an "incapacitation" check and thus who were nigh impossible to knock out of a fight. So this brought about one more change. Like the Explorer's Edition, damage in the <i>Savage Worlds Deluxe</i> edition was an additional +1d6 if the attack had any raises (and only +1d6), but incapacitation changed. This time, any time a character suffers more than three wounds that character is incapacitated...period. A Vigor roll is made to see if there is permanent damage or death, but the character is out of the fight period...unless the character makes a soak roll, but that requires a Benny.&nbsp; This change made combat much faster, and scaled well with the new Super Hero rules and characters with higher stats.<br /><br />But combats could still bog down a little and so Pinnacle made one more change, this time to the Shaken rules.&nbsp; It's a small change, but it has <a href="http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/62619/how-does-the-change-to-the-shaken-mechanic-affect-other-parts-of-the-system" target="_blank">some significant effects on combat</a>. One of the most significant of these changes is that it speeds things up. Players can still spend Bennies to keep their characters moving, but the importance of Bennies has been increased. Given how the rules have been written since day one, this seems intentional. The designers want there to be a good and moving Benny economy.<br /><br />Since the game was released in 2003, it has seen a number of changes and editions, but it seems that uniformly the question underlying the changes is "How can we make this simpler?" The thing that most impresses me with <i>Savage Worlds</i> is how it strives to capture all the granularity of a complex game like <i>Hero</i> or <i>3.x</i> while keeping the game as simple as possible. I think that they manage this feat remarkably well. <br /><br />If you are interested in playing <i>Savage Worlds</i>, and you should be, you can download and play the modern day adventure <a href="http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/62619/how-does-the-change-to-the-shaken-mechanic-affect-other-parts-of-the-system" target="_blank"><i>The Wild Hunt</i></a> for free. It even includes a recent version of the Test Drive rules. There is a more recent version of the rules in the Lankhmar set, but that is for another post.<br /><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/the-evolution-of-savage-worlds-damage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-6506774355739203691Fri, 17 Jul 2015 17:42:00 +00002015-07-17T10:44:30.066-07:00Board GamesBoardgamesForbesGamesGamingHasbroHeroscapeMagicNew GamersRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesLearning from the Casual Gamer: What I Learned Reading Lauren Orsini's Review of Magic: Arena of the PlaneswalkersI've been excited about the upcoming release of Hasbro's <a href="http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/arena-planeswalkers-2015-02-25" target="_blank"><i>Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers</i></a> board game since I first got <a href="http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/boardgame" target="_blank">news of it last year</a>. The game has already received limited release through brick and mortar specialty stores and on Amazon.com, but has an official wide release date of August 1, 2015. I've got my game on pre-order with a smaller FLGS who isn't on Wizards of the Coast's list of premiere stores and I'm eager to play it. My eagerness is two fold. First, the game has received praise on Boardgame geek and <a href="http://www.dicetower.com/game-video/magic-gathering-arena-planeswalkers-review" target="_blank">Tom Vasel</a> has given it a big thumbs up. Second, the game looks to be heavily influenced by one of my favorite introductory miniatures games <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11170/heroscape-master-set-rise-valkyrie" target="_blank"><i>Heroscape</i></a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDsqjaAPYN8/VakzvwiZ7XI/AAAAAAAAHTo/mA20Hz7OvC8/s1600/MTG_BoardGame.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDsqjaAPYN8/VakzvwiZ7XI/AAAAAAAAHTo/mA20Hz7OvC8/s400/MTG_BoardGame.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />My eagerness to play the game has only increased after reading an interesting, and mildly irritating, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsini/2015/07/17/i-played-magic-the-gathering-arena-of-the-planeswalkers-and-all-i-got-was-drunk/?utm_source=followingimmediate&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20150717" target="_blank">review of Magic: Arena of the Planeswalkers from Forbes</a>, entitled "I played 'Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers' and All I Got Was Drunk."<br /><br />The article was irritating because of its focus on drinking, used for humor I suppose, and the fact that it was a perfect demonstration of the ubiquity of tl;dr culture. If something is too long people will ignore it. It's one of those path dependent results of video games masking the the mechanics underlying game play. Video games implement the mechanics and players don't need to know how a game works in order to begin play and can learn how the mechanics work through play. There is still a learning curve, but it is an active learning curve.<br /><br />I'm not entirely opposed to this, but it is a mentality that doesn't work too well with board games. You cannot play a board game without having some sense of the mechanics. This is one of the reasons that some games have "basic" and "advanced" rules that can be used. As I wrote, I'm not opposed to working toward making games more "open and play," but I am frustrated by how the transition to digital reading has lowered people's tolerance for long form journalism and games with rules longer than six pages. <br /><br />The article is interesting because it demonstrates what an encounter with a "light" wargame is to a casual gamer. I have often wondered why <i>Heroscape</i> didn't do as well as I had hoped and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenorsini/" target="_blank">Lauren Orsini</a> filled in that gap for me nicely. To me, <i>Heroscape</i> and games like it, are popcorn and soda affairs that are quick to play and don't require a Master's Degree in Rules Acquisition like the classic <i><a href="http://www.multimanpublishing.com/tabid/58/CategoryID/4/ProductID/1/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Advanced Squad Leader</a></i> does. Compared to the hundreds of pages of rules in <i>ASL</i>, a 20 page rulebook is nothing. But for someone used to pick up and play, or 4 page rulebooks, the story is quite different.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u6pdn6P8W7k/Vak-UsCb1RI/AAAAAAAAHUA/bB5RmgZjvVs/s1600/Arena%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u6pdn6P8W7k/Vak-UsCb1RI/AAAAAAAAHUA/bB5RmgZjvVs/s400/Arena%2BImage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/31914/first-mtg-arena-planeswalkers-copies-street-july-1" target="_blank">Image Source ICv2</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />For gamers like Lauren, Arena of the Planeswalkers 20 page rulebook is the referential counterpoint to those hundreds of pages of rule and being asked to flip through those pages to find a rule is similar to us searching for rule A25.45 which refers us to rule F.8, but is really referring to rule A25.53.<br /><br />In Tom Vasel's reviews of the game, he talks about how quick the game plays and his group is playing it in less than half an hour. In Lauren's review, she describes how she and her group played for <i><b>over three hours </b></i>and still hadn't finished the game. She also expressed concern that her group might not have been playing the game correctly.<br /><br /><br />It would be easy enough to turn this discussion into a screed against Lauren and tl;dr gamers like her, but that's not what I want to do here. Yes, tl;dr culture irritates me. I don't like it when my students haven't read <i>The Federalist Papers</i> because they are difficult to understand and I don't like it when a gamer is intimidated by a "mere" 20 pages of rules.<br /><br />&nbsp;Having written that, 20 pages is actually quite a lot of rules. The basic rules of Chess, one of the greatest games ever made, can be written in <a href="http://www-math.bgsu.edu/~zirbel/chess/BasicChessRules.pdf" target="_blank">two pages</a>.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xzPWM-p6vA/Vak90ovzpmI/AAAAAAAAHT4/VXiWljbvbdc/s1600/Arena_PW_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="78" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xzPWM-p6vA/Vak90ovzpmI/AAAAAAAAHT4/VXiWljbvbdc/s400/Arena_PW_logo.png" width="400" /></a></div>I think that as fans of games and gaming we need to take into account how intimidating a 20 page rulebook can be and not be surprised when someone is intimidated by it. Think about those game sessions when you wanted to play a new game, but hadn't read the rules yet, and read them aloud to the group before play. Remember how long that took? Remember how not fun that was? Playing a game with a longer rulebook requires home work to be done by at least one of the game group. Keep that in mind when designing games, but more importantly keep that in mind when playing with inexperienced gamers. <br /><br />It is our job as game advocates and fans to familiarize ourselves with games so that we can teach them to others and make their experiences as much "open and play" as possible. I think that Lauren's article gives us some pretty good insight into how an inexperienced gamer approaches our hobby. She did her best to learn and play the game with her group and wrote a relatively positive review for someone as intimidated as she was.<br /><br /><br />Now...what Forbes was thinking when they assigned this article to her is another matter entirely.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/learning-from-casual-gamer-what-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-1977493062943849826Tue, 14 Jul 2015 23:23:00 +00002015-07-14T16:23:33.460-07:00AMCFeng ShuiGamesGamingHong Kong FilmsInto the BadlandsMartial ArtsRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsTVInto The Badlands Looks Like a Post-Apocalyptic, Kung Fu, Western and That's a Beautiful Thing.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gCzNR_tKgJs/VaWZ6oC6qTI/AAAAAAAAGnk/iqbJJQTFMJs/s1600/Monkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gCzNR_tKgJs/VaWZ6oC6qTI/AAAAAAAAGnk/iqbJJQTFMJs/s400/Monkey.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><br />I've seen quite a few adaptations of <i>Journey to the West</i>, aka <i>Monkey</i>, in my day. Most of these adaptations fail to capture the wonder I experienced when I first encountered Sun Wukong in Ron Lim's excellent comic book <i><a href="http://www.comicvine.com/dragon-lines/4050-18324/" target="_blank">Dragon Lines</a>. </i>It wasn't until Steven Chow's wild and imaginative <i>Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons</i> that I saw a filmic version of the tale that approached what I had always wanted to see. I've yet to see a Western adaptation that properly captures the heroism and whimsy of Sun Wukong. While I appreciated Jackie Chan's and Jet Li's performances as manifestations of Monkey in <i>The Forbidden Kingdom</i>, the film itself focused too much on the wandering Westerner and not enough on Monkey. I've been pretty skeptical of Hollywood's ability to bring this character to screen as the rightful protagonist of a tale.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Q-LsQEXZn8/VaWUawUQf8I/AAAAAAAAGnU/MkXgUZG96lU/s1600/Sunny%2BWu%2BKung.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="449" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Q-LsQEXZn8/VaWUawUQf8I/AAAAAAAAGnU/MkXgUZG96lU/s640/Sunny%2BWu%2BKung.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />It looks like AMC might just change my assessment. AMC released a preview trailer for their upcoming series <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/into-the-badlands" target="_blank"><i>Into the Badlands</i></a> which is based on the classic tale of heroism and wonder, and I'm really impressed. Yes, it's a Western version of the tale, but it is also a "Western" version of the tale. I'll still go in skeptical, but this show looks like a lot of fun and Daniel Wu's performance as "Sunny" looks great. I was never able to see my much wished for version of the tale with Dennis Dun as Monkey, but Daniel Wu brings a wonderful charisma to the screen.<br /><br />The cinematography of the trailer hints at the influence of Wong Kar Wai and Ronny Yu, and that is a very good thing.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5KyHy4KRvIc" width="560"></iframe></div><br />I can't wait to adapt this to <i>Feng Shui, </i>Chris Pramas' <i>Dragon Fist RPG, </i>or <i>Savage Worlds.</i><br /><br /><br /><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/into-badlands-looks-like-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-3265101666038572599Fri, 10 Jul 2015 01:57:00 +00002015-07-09T18:57:43.865-07:0080sCartoonsGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesTransformersVideo GamesYay! The Return of Cel Shading! Transformers: Devastation is a Game that Looks Like a CartoonWhile the actual gameplay in the new <i>Transformers: Devastation</i>&nbsp;trailer looks less than inspiring, it looks like a mashup of <i>Dynasty Warriors</i>&nbsp;and <i>Tekken</i>, I'm extremely happy to see the return of Cel Shading in video games. There was a brief period in the 90s/early 00s when Cel Shading was all the rage, mostly in some poor games, but I always thought the concept was a good one. Who doesn't want to play a game that looks like the source material? It only adds to the verisimilitude and can create an immersive experience.<br /><br />Kudos for returning to the format.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rCJJYMsgSsk" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/yay-return-of-cel-shading-transformers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-8881920893745633554Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:05:00 +00002015-07-19T09:19:02.835-07:00AGEBoard GamesBoardgamesDragon AgeFantasy AGEGamesGamingGreen RoninRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesTitansGraveWil WheatonTitansGrave, Fantasy AGE, and Stunt Dice -- Probabilties of Rolling Doubles on 3d6<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CHbeeUnBeRs/VZ8HPY_w2NI/AAAAAAAAGms/eUPd0YroUN0/s1600/Dragon%2BAge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CHbeeUnBeRs/VZ8HPY_w2NI/AAAAAAAAGms/eUPd0YroUN0/s400/Dragon%2BAge.jpg" width="307" /></a></div><br />Green Ronin's AGE game system is one of the more innovative role playing systems on the market and the company has begun a major marketing push to promote the system. As a part of their promotional campaign, or as a bit of wonderful serendipity, the AGE system was selected by Wil Wheaton as the role playing system that would be featured in his entertaining <a href="http://geekandsundry.com/shows/titansgrave/" target="_blank">TitansGrave: The Ashes of Valkana webseries</a>. I've <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/06/titansgrave-ashes-of-valkana-episode-1.html" target="_blank">begun reviewing the show</a> episode by episode, and will continue to do so, but one thing struck me as I was watching the second episode that prompted me to do a post that wanders down Probability Lane in the middle of Statisticsville.<br /><br />One of the things that really sets the AGE system apart from other systems is its "Stunt" system. This system allows for an increase in player agency at key moments during a game session. It's a mechanic that evolved from early Greg Gorden designs like <i>James Bond 007</i> which had pools of points players could spend that would allow their characters to do special actions that were out of the realm of possibility for normal "non-player" characters. Some early games that were inspired/influenced by this mechanic include <i>Marvel Superheroes</i> (Karma) and <i>DC Heroes</i> (Hero Points). This mechanic has been very influential in the story game genre where player agency takes priority over game master storytelling. Modern games in this school include, but are not limited to, <i>D&amp;D 5th Edition</i> (Inspiration), <i>Through the Breach: The Malifaux RPG</i> (Twist Decks), and <i>Savage Worlds</i> (Bennies).<br /><br />While the "Stunt" system falls within this design school of modeling character heroics through the increase of player agency, the AGE take is relatively unique. Where most systems have a set pool of points, or have GMs give points to players, AGE allows probability to decide when players get points to spend. Additionally, and most importantly, many systems have either set effects like rerolls (Bennies) or allow for players to radically alter the elements of a scene (Hero Points and many story driven games). AGE takes a middle ground philosophically between these two extremes. While stunt points allow for more than "mere" rerolls,<i> </i>the<i> Dragon AGE</i> role playing game provides lists of effects that can be achieved by spending stunt points and assigns each a cost. For example, attacking two foes simultaneously might require 4 stunt points while adding a die to damage might only require 2. These are only two, of a large number, of effects that can be achieved. What is important here is that while AGE allows for increased player agency, it does so within constraints that are balanced to ensure players feel challenged.<br /><br />So how does one acquire these extremely valuable stunt points?<br /><br />In any AGE game when a player attempts to accomplish a task, that player rolls 3d6 and adds whatever attribute is relevant to that task. For example, when picking a lock a character might add her Dexterity score to the roll. This number is then compared to a Difficulty Number. If the roll plus bonus equals or exceeds that number, the action is successful. If lower, then the action fails. One of these die is of a different color and in <i>Dragon AGE</i> is called the "dragon die", but we'll call it the "stunt die." How successful a character was with the action is sometimes (in the case of extended actions) determined by the value of the stunt die.<br /><br />If any two of the die come up doubles (or if all three come up as a triple), and the action is successful, the player acquires stunt points which may be spent to make that action special. Maybe the attack hit vulnerable spots or a lock is permanently disabled.&nbsp; These things are determined by the expenditure of stunt points and a player acquires a number of these equal to the stunt die value. Note that this only occurs when a player rolls doubles (or triples) and is successful.<br /><br />It's elegant and allows characters to feel extremely heroic in their actions, but this leaves open the question. How common are doubles on 3d6 and how do we even begin to think about these things. There are a couple of books that might be helpful. Chapter 3 of Reiner Knizia's classic <a href="http://amzn.to/1eKSjZW" target="_blank"><i>Dice Games: Properly Explained</i></a> is a good place to start, but I have found O'Reilly's <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1INllnY" target="_blank">Statistics in a Nutshell</a> </i>to be a wonderful resource to return to once the basic idea is understood.<br /><br />The first way we can see how frequently doubles, or triples, turn up is to write out all the possible combinations. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LPyipP3KLpk/VZ8HVCxvbcI/AAAAAAAAGm0/lJ3_j2Cd0mk/s1600/Dragon%2BAge%2BCombinations.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LPyipP3KLpk/VZ8HVCxvbcI/AAAAAAAAGm0/lJ3_j2Cd0mk/s640/Dragon%2BAge%2BCombinations.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />In this case, it isn't too much work, but if more die had been rolled then it would have been far more time consuming and really we don't want to have to do this all the time. What we really need to understand is that this kind of problem is an example of an intersection of independent events. This means that it is an example where we are looking for matching results from things that are independent from on another. This is the case in all die rolls since what a die rolled on one roll does not effect what gets rolled on the next die roll. If you roll a six on a d6 and pick it up, you still have a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a six the next time you roll the die. These are independent events.<br /><br />When determining the probability of independent events, we need to know the total number of combinations possible. In this case, that's simple because we are rolling 3d6. This makes the total number of combinations as follows:<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">6 × 6 × 6 = 216&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">&nbsp;Now we need to know the probability of rolling doubles (or triples) on 3d6. This is equal to:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">P(Rolling Doubles) = 1 - P(Not Rolling Doubles) </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Since this is a case of an intersection of independent events, we will use the following equation and modify it as a chance of not rolling doubles and then subtract that probability from 1. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">P(D1 ∩ D2 ∩ D3) = P(D1) × P(D2) × P(D3)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">We know that the probability of rolling a number on 1d6 is 100%. The first number we roll doesn't matter, so that makes D1 = 1.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We know that there are 5 ways to not roll the number rolled on the first die and that leaves us with D2 = 5/6.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We know that the chance of not rolling a number on either of the first two die is 4/6 which makes D3 = 4/6.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This gives us the following equation:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><strike>P(D1 ∩ D2 ∩ D3) = P(1) × P(5/6) × P(4/6) = .66667 </strike><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">P(D1 ∩ D2 ∩ D3) = P(1) × P(5/6) × P(4/6) &nbsp;= .55554</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The odds of not rolling doubles is .66667. Thus the odds of rolling doubles is: <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strike>P(Doubles) = 1 - (.66667) = .44443</strike><br /><br />P(Doubles) = 1 - .55554 = .44446<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This leaves us with a 44.44% chance of rolling doubles or triples. If you want to double check the equation, you can count the 16*6 combinations above and divide that by 216. Another way of looking at this intersection is using this Venn diagram. As you can see, there are 6 ways of rolling triples and 30 doubles combinations at each intersection of any two dice (making a total of 96). </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-53TIlq06d7s/VZ7_NVIxmnI/AAAAAAAAGmc/RJ3cT68_V5s/s1600/3d6%2BVenn.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-53TIlq06d7s/VZ7_NVIxmnI/AAAAAAAAGmc/RJ3cT68_V5s/s400/3d6%2BVenn.png" width="400" /></a></div>As for calculating the odds of earning stunt points at any given Difficulty rating, that is beyond the scope of this conversation and I'd leave such analysis up for those much better versed in probability and statistics than I am.<br /><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/07/titansgrave-fantasy-age-and-stunt-dice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-3917410695250717803Wed, 24 Jun 2015 22:04:00 +00002015-06-24T16:44:32.150-07:00DeadlandsGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsThe Sixth GunA Short Q&A Discussing THE SIXTH GUN for Savage Worlds<div>Yesterday, I wrote a brief review/overview of the upcoming <i>The Sixth Gun</i> campaign setting for the Savage Worlds role playing game.</div><div></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/the-sixth-gun-rpg-for-savage-worlds" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRL6IgYOyjE/VYsnvI240XI/AAAAAAAAGls/uymIbr1rQ10/s400/Sixth%2BGun%2BRpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div></div><div>To make a long story short, you need to<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/the-sixth-gun-rpg-for-savage-worlds" target="_blank"> back this project</a> or buy it as soon as it comes out. It's a great mashup of Westerns, Fantasy, and Horror that provides a wonderful sandbox for creative play. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition to getting an advanced look at the rules and initial adventure campaign, both of which are up to Pinnacle's high production standards, I had the opportunity to engage in a brief Q&amp;A with the creators.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd like to share my chat with Shane, Jodi, and Scott. </div><div></div><div>Shane Lacy Hensley, owner of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and creator of the award-winning <i>Savage Worlds</i> and <i>Deadlands </i>roleplaying games.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jodi Black, COO and Managing Editor for Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Game Club volunteer for her kids' Middle School for the past 3 years</div><div><br /></div><div>Scott A. Woodard, author of The Sixth Gun RPG</div><div><br /></div><br /><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"><b>&nbsp;1) What prompted PEG to seek a license for <i>The Sixth Gun</i>? Are you worried about brand dilution or cannibalization from your <i>Deadlands</i> line?</b></span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: black;"><b>Shane: </b>Oni approached us, and at first I was reluctant, of course. But as I said elsewhere, I DEVOURED the graphic novels, fell in love with them, and said "Who else SHOULD do this game besides us?" No one, of course. And the fact that they'd be 100% compatible with <i>Deadlands</i> (and vice-versa) is a huge advantage from my point of view.<span class="im"></span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"></span></span></blockquote><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"><br /><br /><b>&nbsp;2) The Sixth Gun looks like it might be more "kid friendly" than a straight <i>Deadlands</i> game, but given that there is a Gallows Tree and a horror tone what age group do you think will be most appropriate?</b></span></span><br /><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: black;"><b>Jodi:</b> I think teens and preteens will love the dark elements of<i> The Sixth Gun</i>--but, with a little GM editing,<i> Deadlands</i> fits that niche too. One age group <i>The Sixth Gun</i> can adapt better to is the 6-10 age range, depending of course on the child's tolerance for dark. My youngest daughter would have gleefully embraced talking to hanged men at age 6, while my oldest daughter would have needed to be 8 or so. Now that they're 13 and 15, of course, they're at the perfect age for exploring the Weird West!<span class="im"></span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"></span></span></blockquote><span style="color: black;"><br /><b></b></span><br /><div><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"><b>3) Could you tell me a little bit about the factions (Sword of Abraham and Knights of Solomon) in the game?</b></span><b><br /></b></span><br /><blockquote><span style="color: black;"><b>Scott: </b>Both organizations are integral to the central plot of <i>The Sixth Gun</i> comic series. Because of that, they simply had to be present in the game. For those unfamiliar with the series, the Knights of Solomon are an order that seeks to acquire ancient artifacts and relics in order to exploit their power for personal gain, while the Sword of Abraham stands opposed to their efforts in order to prevent Armageddon! In the roleplaying game, we present details about both factions, information on their lairs, archetypal NPC stat blocks for both, and the option to actually play representatives from either group. In the comic, Drake Sinclair was once in the employ of the Knights of Solomon, but over time, their paths diverged. Perhaps your PC shares a similar backstory... </span></blockquote><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"><b>&nbsp;4) The majority of <i>Savage Worlds </i>settings seem to be "high concept" combinations of multiple genres, what is it about the <i>Savage Worlds</i> system that encourages that?</b></span></span><br /><blockquote><span style="color: black;"><b>Shane:</b> I'm not sure it's <i>Savage Worlds</i> so much as my personal preference for not just doing another Tolkien knockoff. From the very beginning we've only wanted to do games with a twist. <i>Deadlands</i> and <i>Sixth Gun</i> are Western horror--which didn't exist in the RPG space at the time.<i> Lankhmar</i> is thieves' guild fantasy. <i>50 Fathoms</i> is fantasy pirates. Sometimes that keeps us from taking on a genre until we have that twist. We'd like to do a classic pulp setting, for example, but haven't found anything with a good twist yet. There are plenty of early Nazi / zeppelin / Indiana Jones style pulp games out there already. What could we do that's different and unique? We haven't figured that out yet.</span></blockquote><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span style="color: black;"></span></b></div><span style="color: black;"><span class="im"><b>5) If I wanted to run a <i>Savage Worlds</i> game for 7 to 10 year olds, what is one rule change you would recommend to speed up the learning curve?</b></span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: black;"><b>Jodi:</b> Rules for magic, regardless of system or setting, tend to be the hardest to grasp so that's always the easiest change to make: Either no magic for their characters, or help them make an easy magic-using character to run (choosing <i>entangle</i> instead of<i> bolt</i>, for example). For <i>The Sixth Gun</i>, I'd probably not use the Critical Failures Setting Rule either, as not all kids do well with complete failure as a plot device. I also suggest taking Hindrances they can relate to, like Impulsive and Short Temper...or maybe that's just MY experience with kids. :)</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/the-sixth-gun-rpg-for-savage-worlds/widget/video.html" width="480"> </iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/06/a-short-discussing-sixth-gun-for-savage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-96756774782751023Tue, 23 Jun 2015 23:19:00 +00002015-06-24T15:06:08.798-07:00DeadlandsFeng ShuiGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsThe Sixth GunSavage Worlds, The Sixth Gun, and Infinite Possibilities<div style="text-align: center;"><i>"It was human suffering that called The Six into existence. And The Six gave the humans the power to recreate the world."</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/the-sixth-gun-rpg-for-savage-worlds" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lt0YxpDwo6s/VYnRtNTn-JI/AAAAAAAAGkk/mqhEaYKsm8c/s400/Sixth%2BGun.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br />I've been a fan of role playing games produced by Pinnacle Entertainment Group since the first time I saw a copy of the <a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/deadlands/" target="_blank"><i>Deadlands</i></a> role playing game sitting on the shelf of a friendly local game store. My fandom only increased when they released the Savage Worlds role playing game in the early 2000s. The system, based on a very simplified version of the <i>Deadlands</i> rules, lives up to its tagline and is Fast, Furious, and Fun! It is one of the easiest role playing games to teach people how to play, and it runs combats swifter than any other system I've played. The mechanics are also incredibly flexible and can be used to simulate everything from Sword &amp; Sorcery to Superheroes without missing a beat.<br /><br />Over the years, Pinnacle has produced a number of settings for the Savage Worlds system, often featuring high concept mash-ups of other genre. Some of my favorites are the Cyberpunk meets Gothic horror <a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/rippers/" target="_blank"><i>Rippers</i></a> and the Independence Day/V meets The Avengers setting <i><a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/necessary-evil/" target="_blank">Necessary Evil</a>. </i>Prior to this past month, they have only published one Western inspired setting in their <a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/deadlands-reloaded/" target="_blank"><i>Deadlands Reloaded</i> adaptation</a> of the original role playing game.<br /><br />Pinnacle is currently finishing up a Kickstarter campaign for a new Western themed Savage Setting called <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/the-sixth-gun-rpg-for-savage-worlds" target="_blank"><i>The Sixth Gun</i></a> based on the Oni Press <a href="https://www.comixology.com/The-Sixth-Gun/comics-series/4556" target="_blank">comic book series of the same name</a><i>.</i> I've had the benefit of giving the rules a look over, and I can say that this may quickly become my favorite Savage Setting. <br /><br />While <i>The Sixth Gun</i> is at its base a Western tale, it is far more than that. The quote at the beginning of this post is from the story and it is literally true. Those who control The Six have the power to recreate the world in their own image. In a way, <i>The Sixth Gun </i>is a <i>Feng Shui</i> meets <i>Deadlands</i> mashup and that is a beautiful thing.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wKqkbzUbzS4/VYnpTAiZGOI/AAAAAAAAGk8/ep48Lz3nwTc/s1600/Gallows%2BTree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wKqkbzUbzS4/VYnpTAiZGOI/AAAAAAAAGk8/ep48Lz3nwTc/s400/Gallows%2BTree.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />While The Six are "guns" in the current setting, they have been clubs and swords in the past. Who's to say they couldn't be "Rings of Power" in another? Not me. I'm already prepping a Savage Supers Setting based on "The Sixth Ring." It's a Savage high concept mashup of <i>Green Lantern, Deadlands, Feng Shui, </i>and <i>The Sixth Gun.</i><br /><br />As is typical of Savage Settings, <i>The Sixth Gun</i> is rules are well written and written using active voice. This makes for quick reading. There are a number of small differences in the mechanics from the core rules. It is often said that Savage Worlds is not a "universal" rules set, rather a rules set that can be adapted to any setting. In <i>The Sixth Gun</i>, the standard Arcane Backgrounds are not allowed. Instead, there are specific Backgrounds that are better suited to the core <i>The Sixth Gun </i>setting. This allows the game to have magic "feel" different for the setting than it would using the rules from the core rule book. The setting also uses a couple of key rules like "Born a Hero" and "Critical Failures" to give the setting the appropriate grimly heroic tone.<br /><i> </i><br />As a father who is teaching his seven year-old daughters to play role playing games, this setting is slightly more cartoony than the <i>Deadlands</i> setting and allows me to role play "action ghost stories" with the twins instead of the more serious grimdark horror of <i>Deadlands.</i> I'm still waiting for a Savage Worlds "Moldvay/Cook Basic" equivalent to be published, but I've been working on an equivalent for my home game.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0cW9LFxshs/VYnpYYwCvUI/AAAAAAAAGlE/68AihIznJ1w/s1600/sixth-gun-print.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0cW9LFxshs/VYnpYYwCvUI/AAAAAAAAGlE/68AihIznJ1w/s400/sixth-gun-print.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />In addition to <i>The Winding Way</i>, an adventure campaign for <i>The Sixth Gun</i> game, Pinnacle have two free adventures available on RPGNow entitled <i><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/151060/The-Sixth-Gun-Circle-the-Wagons?cPath=117_23342" target="_blank">Circle the Wagons</a> </i>and<a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/150332/The-Sixth-Gun-The-OneHand-Gang?cPath=117_23342" target="_blank"> </a><i><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/150332/The-Sixth-Gun-The-OneHand-Gang?cPath=117_23342" target="_blank">The One-Hand Gang</a>.</i> <i>The Winding Way</i> is a great introduction to <i>The Sixth Gun</i> setting and highlights the transformative nature of The Six. I cannot wait for these books to be published, and you have a couple more days to back the project yourself.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/06/savage-worlds-sixth-gun-and-infinite.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-5156676998634503872Wed, 17 Jun 2015 18:03:00 +00002015-06-17T11:03:21.134-07:00Dragon AgeGamesGamingGreen RoninRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesTitansGraveWeb SeriesWil WheatonTitansgrave: Ashes of Valkana | Episode 1 Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CQ4flzSbStQ/VYG2GDe3BWI/AAAAAAAAGj4/POWq9eDYYFY/s1600/TitansGrave%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CQ4flzSbStQ/VYG2GDe3BWI/AAAAAAAAGj4/POWq9eDYYFY/s400/TitansGrave%2BImage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />I was pretty skeptical when I first heard the news that Geek &amp; Sundry would be running a Tabletop Roleplaying Game Let's Play with Wil Wheaton as the Game Master. I wasn't skeptical that Geek &amp; Sundry would actually produce the show, rather I was skeptical that it would work as a piece of entertainment.<br /><br />I've been a fan of playing RPGs since I was ten years old, but I've learned one thing from standing around watching RPGA sessions at various conventions. With the exception of the fictional world of the <a href="http://www.goblinsandgold.com/csp/gold/" target="_blank"><i>Gold</i></a> web series, where roleplaying games are a spectator sport, it isn't often fun to watch other people play them. There are so many ways that the spectator experience can be fouled. The Game Master might not be willing to engage in theatrics. The Game Master may be bad at theatrics...although that can have its own short term entertainment value. The medium isn't very visual on its own and requires participants to fill in the "spectacle" of the tale. The players may not be evocative in their explanations of what their characters are doing. The game play might get caught up in the spiral of discussing things that aren't at all game related, and thus turn the experience into merely watching a conversation about which version of <i>Highlander 2</i> is worth watching.<br /><br />The answer is neither.<br /><br />It's one thing for a roleplaying game session to be fun for the participants, which it can be with all the above failures, it's quite another for it to be fun to watch.<br /><br />David Nett and his friends did a great job of creating an entertaining to watch roleplaying game experience with their second season of <i>Gold</i> entitled <i>Night of the Zombie King</i>, but they did so in an entirely scripted format where the roleplaying game session was merely the setting for a host of dramatic tensions. Being scripted, the session is also heavily edited and time compressed. The question is whether the entertainment value of a well-written and well acted "scripted simulation" of a roleplaying session can be recreated in a real gaming session where things are much looser.<br /><br />If the first episode of TitansGrave: Ashes of Valkana is any indication, the answer is yes. I won't say that it is a "resounding yes," for reasons I'll articulate as the review goes along, but I will say that Geek &amp; Sundry did manage to create an entertaining viewing experience.<br /><br />WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT <i>TITANSGRAVE </i><br /><br />Before I comment on what I believe the show has done wrong, let me begin by praising what it got correct. A lot of work went into producing this web series, and it shows. Wil Wheaton has recruited a number of actors, of the tradition and voice varieties, to play the game with him. Before you assume that the "recruiting of actors" means the "recruiting of non-gamers/non-geeks," let me cue you in on a little secret. D&amp;D is the secret language of Hollywood. There is an entire community of rpg geeks in tinseltown, and while not everyone games a lot do.<br /><br />The show has also selected a game system, the AGE system from <a href="http://greenronin.com/" target="_blank">Green Ronin</a>, that has a lot of improvisational narrative potential. All roleplaying games have at their root the potential for improvisational narrative, it is after all what really defines a roleplaying game, but given the tactical wargame roots of the hobby the game can sometimes descend into a series of "I roll a 13, I do 5 damage, You roll a 15, I take 3 damage" comments that are mindnumbing to watch. Roleplaying is best watched when "roles" are being "played" and that means that actions are being described rather than mere die rolls. AGE's "stunt point" system aids in making combat sequences more narrative, rather than quantitative, by mechanically encouraging players to create descriptions of their actions in return for benefits. Players respond to incentives, and if you incentivize narrative descriptions you tend to get more of them.<br /><br />The show hired adventure writers from the game industry who worked with Wil Wheaton to bring about his world. It's one thing to hire talented writers, but it is another thing to hire people who can take a story and translate it into a game experience. Experienced adventure writers have a knack for it. It takes more than breaking a story down beat by beat and then creating stats to gamify a story. It takes an intuition regarding how players will respond to circumstances. You also need to be able to create a small enough segment of a story that it can be played (after being edited) in less than an hour and still have narrative movement. This includes taking into account the delay that mechanics will cause as actions are resolved. What separates roleplaying games from mere improvisational theater is the fact that actions are arbitrated by mechanics. This is something that not only is at the core of what makes roleplaying games "games," but is a key to ensuring that all players get an equal chance to participate/succeed.<br /><br />Hiring Wes Otis for the sound effects and musical loops was wise. Otis has done good work as a sound professional, but he has also made some great effects for home play.<br /><br />The show is well edited, which cuts down on the digressions that players are prone to making, and has incorporated sound effects and some minor animations to increase the visual appeal. The editing is key for this show, and they seem to know it. They have edited out the distracting digressions, while leaving some of the more entertaining ones in, which gives the session a nice play flow.<br /><br />The cast does a good job of staying interesting without trying too hard. One of my person peeves when watching some episodes of Tabletop is that the players often seem to be trying too hard to entertain. They seem to have the sense that watching a board game isn't exciting in and of itself, and thus feel the need to spice it up. Wil Wheaton, Hank Green, Laura Bailey, Yuri Lowenthal, and Alison Haislip may be doing that a little in<i> TitansGrave</i>, but it is indistinguishable from the normal one-upsmanship I've witnessed in my playing experience. <br /><br />WEAKNESSES<br /><br />This show is not made for a wide audience. It's hard to tell if the show is meant to only appeal to those who are already gaming, or whether it is also meant to bring more people in. I say that because the first episode already has a couple of inside jokes that might appeal to long time gamers, but which will be missed by new viewers.&nbsp; Additionally, the first story is "age confined" in that they had to bleep out profanity and that it's about drinking. This isn't a bad thing per se, and I found it quite entertaining, but it does limit your viewing audience.<br /><br />Lack of use of voice actor talent. C'mon people! Let's get crazy! We've got funny people here, but they seem to be holding back a little in combat. This could partially be because they are still learning the AGE system, and don't feel comfortable with it, but I want more verbal sound effects from the players. Laura Bailey and Yuri Lowenthal are trending in this direction, but I want more as a viewer. You really can't "commit" too much for me. Think about it like a comedic role. You have to be willing to fully commit to the joke/process. That doesn't mean go over the top, but it does mean you have to immerse yourself in the play and lose the wall of "I'm being judged." <br /><br />The show hasn't quite captured a way to make the depiction of combat visually interesting. I both like and dislike the battle display they are doing. I like that they aren't showing miniatures on the table, which can be good are bad for spectators, allowing the actors to free form act rather than move game pieces. What isn't working for me is how static the display is. If you are going to present a graphic virtual tabletop, have the images move about on the hologrid you've presented. I also noticed that Wil Wheaton began to fall into the "I roll an x and do y damage" drone. It's hard not to, and Wheaton was great most of the time, but it's something he'll need to fight.<br /><br />The show isn't perfect, but it did entertain me. We'll see how the season progresses. One thing is certain, I will keep watching. I will also be <a href="http://greenroninstore.com/collections/age-system/products/titansgrave-the-ashes-of-valkana" target="_blank">buying the tabletop campaign supplement </a>as soon as Green Ronin releases it.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q8HbkYV5ZaY" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/06/titansgrave-ashes-of-valkana-episode-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-2646253800116788620Fri, 29 May 2015 23:12:00 +00002015-05-29T16:12:50.298-07:00100 New WaysAlternate RulesCandy LandGame DesignGamesGamingHouse RulesRole Playing Gamesroleplaying games[100 New Ways to Play Classic Games] Alternative Candy Land Rules #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5<br />As a parent of younger children, my twin daughters History and Mystery are 7 years old, I get to play a lot of games that consistently receive low ratings at Board Game Geek. This is <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/user/AaronBurr" target="_blank">not due to a lack of board game diversity in the household</a>, rather to the kinds of games that tend to be designed for younger players and the opinions that "sophisticated" hobby game experts tend to have regarding the kinds of games targeted at children. Briefly stated, there is a strong bias against "kids' games."<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/---iPlHG8gis/VWjpZSaxtQI/AAAAAAAAGgc/TnDOj1qQC3k/s1600/Candy%2BLand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/---iPlHG8gis/VWjpZSaxtQI/AAAAAAAAGgc/TnDOj1qQC3k/s1600/Candy%2BLand.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />The bias doesn't stem from a lack of interest in the topics or settings used to inspire kids games, rather the bias seems to be a bias against "primitive" game play. Many children's games are simplified "track games" where the objective of play is to get from the start square to the finish square and in doing so win the game. A quick visit to the <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5048/candy-land" target="_blank"><i>Candy Land</i></a> webpage shows us that the average BGG rating for the game is 3.19 which equates with the game being "Bad." The highest rating, a 6.944 is held by the fantastic game <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/327/loopin-louie" target="_blank"><i>Loopin' Louie</i></a>, and a 7 on BGG is supposed to be a "Good" game. Good, not excellent.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUQtDbFARWA/VWjmGBwuWdI/AAAAAAAAGgQ/qjLIbohoew8/s1600/Candy%2BLand%2BChart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="361" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MUQtDbFARWA/VWjmGBwuWdI/AAAAAAAAGgQ/qjLIbohoew8/s640/Candy%2BLand%2BChart.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source -- Board Game Geek Candy Land Page</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Game ratings are subjective though and BGG's guidelines don't provide different scales or criteria for children's games and hobby games. This is a defensible position, but is less helpful to consumers who might wonder whether a game would be fun to "play with kids" instead of wondering if the game would be "fun all the time and forever challenging." I think that <i>Candy Land</i> scores very high on the first criteria, but falls flat on the second. <i>&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i>Candy Land</i> is a great first game. It's an even better tool for learning about game design. I personally rate the game as an 8 on BGG and think that those who rate it lower are not rating it as what it is.<a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2011/12/in-defense-of-candy-land.html" target="_blank"> I've defended the game in an earlier post</a>, but I've been intending to write a series of posts on "100 New Ways to Play Classic Games" for quite some time. There was a time when I wanted to write them down and run a Kickstarter to fund a book that collected them. Now I just want to share them as they come.<br /><br />The idea was inspired by <a href="http://www.boardgame-remix-kit.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Boardgame Remix Kit</i></a> by Kevan Davis, Alex Fleetood, Holly Gramazio, and James Wallis as well as the classic <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Classic-Games-Wayne-Schmittberger/dp/0471536210/ref=pd_sim_sbs_14_1?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1F5KNWN8WHMK5K01W379" target="_blank"><i>New Rules for Classic Games </i></a>by <span class="a-size-medium">R. Wayne Schmittberger. Where both of those products included a couple of variants for a variety of games, I wanted to write a much larger number of variants for the games that I love. This would start with the quintessential Game Designer's toolkit that is <i>Candy Land</i> and move on to other games. Each game will be provided with as close to 100 alternate rules as I can think of and the alternate rules will be spread over a long series of posts instead of smashed into one post. All of the posts will be categorized under the [100 New Ways to Play Classic Games] label.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span class="a-size-medium">Today's post will include 5 Alternative Candy Land rules for your use. Two of them have been previously published, but three are new.</span><br /><span class="a-size-medium"><br /></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="a-size-medium"><u>Alternative Candy Land Rules</u></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>1) Bag Draw</b> <br />In this version of "Candy Land," all of the cards are placed into a bag, or hat, and the players draw a random card from the bag on their turn, plays the card, and then places it in the discard pile. This makes the game more purely random, and eliminates the pre-determination factor of the game. <br /><br /><b>2) Bag Draw Variant</b> </blockquote></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote class="tr_bq">As published, Candy Land features a "<a href="http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/december12011/index.html" target="_blank">broken Markov Chain</a>" because possible future actions, and not merely results, are affected by prior draws. The cards in the discard pile are removed as possible outcomes. This variant of the Bag Draw rule eliminates that feature by returning cards to the deck and resetting the probability that any given card will be drawn in the future.&nbsp;</blockquote></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote class="tr_bq"> In this variant, cards are immediately put back into the bag after it has been used for movement determination and the next player has the possibility of drawing that card from the bag.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>3) 1 through 4 and Left or Right</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">In this variant, players shuffle the cards as normal at the beginning of the game thus setting the order of cards for the remainder of the game.&nbsp; The first player draws as normal and is considered Player 1 for the remainder of the game.&nbsp; The other players in counter-clockwise rotation are players 2 through 4.&nbsp; </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;After the first player's draw, all future draws are decided through the roll of a six-sided die.&nbsp; On a result of 1 to 4, the player of that number draws the next card.&nbsp; On a result of 5, the player to the left of the current player draws a card.&nbsp; On a result of 6, the player to the right of the current player draws a card.&nbsp; <br /><b><br /><br />4) Predestiny with Agency</b><br /><br />Long time players of <i>Candy Land</i> quickly come to discover that the actual outcome of the game is decided before the first card is flipped. The order of the cards dictates the outcome. The game is a case study of predestination. This rule shakes that up a bit by adding a limited amount of player agency into the picture.<br /><br />Once the cards have been shuffled, and the first player determined, draw the first ten cards and lay them adjacent to the top of the <i>Candy Land</i> board in the order they are drawn. These are the first 10 actions that will occur in the game. Each player is given ONE (1) opportunity to SKIP per 10 card draw. Only one player may skip any given card. To illustrate:<br /><br />1) The First Player, in a two player game, would normally be required to move, but sees that the current card is Purple and the second card is a special that would move her significantly up the map, the First Player skips her turn forcing the Second Player to use that card.<br />2) The Second Player has one SKIP available for this draw, but since a player has already skipped this card the Second Player must use the card, but will get an opportunity later to SKIP a different card.<br /><br />Once all 10 cards have been played, a new set of 10 cards are revealed and each player can now SKIP one of these cards. SKIPs cannot be carried over from one deal to the next.<br /><br /><b>5) Revealed Destiny with Agency</b><br /><br />This variant continues our exploration of predestination by adding a limited amount of player agency in a slightly different way than the last alternate rule.<br /><br />Once the cards have been shuffled, and the first player determined, draw all of the cards and lay them adjacent to the <i>Candy Land</i> board in the order they are drawn. The players can now see the entire map of actions that will occur in the game, and the order in which they will happen. Each player is given FOUR (4) opportunities to SKIP an action, but can regain one by accepting a special card that sends them backward. Only one player may skip any given card. To illustrate:<br /><br />1) The First Player, in a two player game, would normally be required to move, but sees that the current card is Purple and the second card is a special that would move her significantly up the map, the First Player skips her turn forcing the Second Player to use that card.<br />2) The Second Player has one SKIP available for this draw, but since a player has already skipped this card the Second Player must use the card, but will get an opportunity later to SKIP a different card.<br /><br />Once all 64 cards have been played, a new set of 64 cards are revealed and each player can now SKIP one of these cards with a refreshed FOUR (4) opportunities. SKIPs cannot be carried over from one deal to the next.</blockquote></blockquote><br /><u>PRIOR POSTS ON <i>CANDY LAND</i>:</u><br /><br /><ul><li>You Can Read My Defense of <i>Candy Land</i> <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2011/12/in-defense-of-candy-land.html" target="_blank">Here</a>. </li><li>You Can Read My Post on <i>Candy Land</i> as RPG<a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2012/07/role-playing-games-and-candyland.html" target="_blank"> Here</a>.</li></ul>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/05/100-new-ways-to-play-classic-games.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-7414556942859674680Wed, 27 May 2015 02:22:00 +00002015-05-26T19:22:15.421-07:00Appendix NDungeons and DragonsFandomFantasyGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSFThe GuardianThe Perils of Public Statements and Why Natasha Pulley is the Bravest SF/F Fan I've Ever Read<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xy_GgwM_m-c/VWUjBVvWmiI/AAAAAAAAGKg/6uoOeiuZIGs/s1600/Ill%2BMet%2Bin%2BLankhmar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xy_GgwM_m-c/VWUjBVvWmiI/AAAAAAAAGKg/6uoOeiuZIGs/s400/Ill%2BMet%2Bin%2BLankhmar.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br />The Guardian is one of the few newspapers that truly takes Science Fiction and Fantasy literature seriously on a regular basis. They frequently have reviews of new releases, cover the latest kerfuffle in fandom, and run a number of opinion columns discussing the genres. As a fan, it's nice to find a place in the mainstream media where I can see one of my obsessions treated without a hint of irony.<br /><br />This isn't to say that The Guardian doesn't wander into Clickbaitlandia from time to time. <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2009/10/why-people-who-think-speculative.html" target="_blank">I took one of their regular writers, Damien Walter, to task for asking if we were "in a post-Sci Fi era."</a> Damien was kind enough to take my discussion seriously, which made for one of my own personal blogging highlights. One does not often imagine that people who have deadlines to meet, and who are halfway across the globe, have time to respond to one's little island of ideas.<br /><br />About a week or so ago, Damien wrote a piece lamenting the tyranny of mega-novel series in epic fantasy fiction. As a fan of the Fantasy genre, who is tired of being expected to read 10,000 pages over the span of 20 years in order to get a complete tale told within an author's mythopoeic construction, I was glad to see someone I respect shared my views. I miss the compact and deep shorter novels of days past. Long gone are the days of <i>Elric of Melnibone</i>, we now live in the era of <i>The Wheel of Time</i>. I think that today's readers are poorer for that experience, but there are those who disagree with Damien's view. Among them is an aspiring author named Natasha Pulley.<br /><br />Natasha Pulley argues in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/20/fantasy-imaginary-worlds-george-r-r-martin-robin-hobb?CMP=share_btn_fb" target="_blank">her own piece at The Guardian</a> that, "High fantasy...hinges on world-building. When there really is a whole world to build, and not just a historical period or a particular country, world-building does not take a few paragraphs in a short story; it takes chapters. Add to that the anvil on which creative writing schools hammer their students now, show don't tell, and these details take even longer to convey." Her argument is that the modern genre of Epic Fantasy requires the massive amounts of elaboration that so many modern Fantasy novels indulge in as a condition of additig literary value and verisimilitude. In Pulley's analysis, many of the best Fantasy stories are very simple tales at there core and it is the addition of world-building and subtle portrayals of character interaction that make these stories truly worthwhile.<br /><br /><br />There is more to her argument, to be sure and you should read her piece in its entirety, but it is one that I could not disagree with more. I think that the kind of "subtlety" of interpersonal interactions that makes up much of the verbiage of many a modern tale are flaws in writing and not virtues.<br /><br />Before I elaborate on my reasons, I want to take a moment to repeat something I wrote in the headline of this post. Natasha Pulley may be the bravest SF/F fan I've ever read. I write this because she has written column that takes up a somewhat controversial opinion during a time when fandom won't hesitate to demonstrate to you exactly how wrong you are, and often not in the nicest of terms. The reason I am writing this post is less because I disagree with Pulley and think she is in need of "correction," rather it's because of the ire she raised among my Facebook friends. I have an odd collection of "friends" on Facebook who run the gamut from "not at all interested in SF/F" to editors in the field, and many of them were outraged by Pulley's piece. One of the nicer critiques was that it seemed that The Guardian had recently become a cesspool of nothing but click bait articles.<br /><br />I, myself, even tweeted out a brief "you clearly haven't read x..." tweet in response to Pulley's article. I wasn't insulting in tone or language, but I think I was a bit dismissive. Pulley's response was perfect, "I'll add that to my reading list." Not only is she brave, but she clearly cast a Stoneskin spell upon herself after writing the piece. The rage on my feed, and Pulley's own polite response to my snark, are why I'm writing this post.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a_Z3E5MKW9A/VWUkKk8sKgI/AAAAAAAAGKo/sG9kSluHNmI/s1600/Northwest%2BSmith.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a_Z3E5MKW9A/VWUkKk8sKgI/AAAAAAAAGKo/sG9kSluHNmI/s400/Northwest%2BSmith.jpeg" width="261" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'll begin my critique of Pulley's piece by using a trick she uses in her own article. In order to demonstrate how simple, almost simplistic, Epic Fantasy tales can be, she reduces a couple to their barest skeleton. Her choices are Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. I'll go a step more modern, into a series that is "windier" (pun totally intended) than Rowling at her most "we are camping for 300 pages," and pick Patrick Rothfuss's <i>The Name of the Wind.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Name of the Wind&nbsp;</i> : Homeless youth goes to college and acquires student loan debt.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Spoiler alert. That's pretty much all that happens in that book and it takes a long time to get there. Readers are led through sidebar after sidebar of other short stories along the way, but that's the crux of the book. Oh...and it's very enjoyable because it's well written. A part of how well it is written is in the little short stories that take place throughout the book. In fact, the sidebars contain far more world-building than the wordy narrative. Some of the best world-building in Rothfuss' book are the product of "off-hand" comments made by characters in the book. By off-hand, I mean off-hand to the characters, they are very intentional by the author.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This brings me to my main point. While Pulley is correct in stating that the on page development of deep friendships or interactions between characters can be page consuming, she is wrong about world-building. The problem, and blessing, of modern Fantasy is that it gives us entire conversations. This makes for very believable characters, but neither moves the story along nor gives the reader a sense of the world.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The best world-building is seen in shorter fiction, not in longer. It is, as Pulley rightfully acknowledges, extremely difficult to write short fiction let alone short Fantasy fiction. That's one of the reasons, much to Susan Palwick's disappointment I imagine, that I have not published any fiction to date. It's hard to be creative. But as difficult as short fiction is to write, it is where the best writing occurs. <br /><br />Robert E Howard's first Conan tale, <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2007/10/whats-so-special-about-conan.html" target="_blank">which I examined at this blog some time ago</a>, is rich with world-building. Sometimes Howard achieves world-building through heuristic shortcuts where certain nations are "inspired" by our own history. He's not alone in this though as Robert Jordan borrowed from <i>Dune, King Arthur, </i>Tolkien, and a host of other sources for his Wheel of Time series. One would imagine that with all of the world-building shortcuts Jordan used, he wouldn't need so many books to tell his tale.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Fritz Lieber's classic tales of Nehwon are all short fiction, usually novellas, that give a strong sense of place in a very small number of words.<br /><br />Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga is brilliant for its world-building and yet the world gets no "bigger" the more books you read. The world is real from moment one, even if you don't get the heuristic shortcuts Moorcock is using.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Garth Nix's tales of Hereward and Mr. Fitz take place in a fully imagined environment and never have they wandered into even the novel in length.<br /><br />H.P. Lovecraft build complex mythologies within the short form.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">C.L. Moore's <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/p/blogging-pulp-stories.html" target="_blank">Northwest Smith</a> is one of the most realized characters in all of fiction, and his tales are a collection of shorter stories.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Barsoom is fully realized in "Under the Moons of Mars." Yes, that's a novel, but it isn't a massive mega-novel series. Even as a series, the full of Barsoom lore pales before a single volume of Rothfuss in mass.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Averoigne is as real a place as any other, but Clark Ashton Smith did not need 12 volumes to immerse us there.<br /><br />The depth of a setting can be shared with arcane and subtle references that inspire the imagination. One need not have a fully articulated mythology akin to the Silmarillion fully referenced within a tale to give that tale depth. I'm not saying that having a fully written Silmarillion isn't helpful to an author who wants to be able to share subtle references with readers, it probably is. Instead, I'm saying that all readers need are subtle references to fill in the blanks. Gary Gygax's Appendix N is filled with tales of wonder far shorter, and more inspirational, than much of what is published today. <br /><br />Leave gaps for the readers to fill. Let our imaginations live in the spaces between.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It is a tragedy that Fantasy has wandered too often away from praise of shorter fiction, short stories, novels, and novellas. They are still printed, but they lack the commercial success of their mega-tyrants. Given how much easier it is to translate a shorter tale to other media, other fandoms are ill-served by this tyranny.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've shared only a few of my favorite shorter tales of Fantasy. What are some of yours?</div><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/05/the-perils-of-public-statements-and-why.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-8304472772179379612Thu, 14 May 2015 23:44:00 +00002015-05-14T16:44:33.169-07:00Action FiguresAvengersComic Book MoviesComic BooksGamesGamingGI JoeHasbroRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesOf Black Widow and "Boy's Toys" #WheresNatashaIt has recently been reported by<a href="http://legionofleia.com/2015/05/black-widow-replaced-in-her-own-scene-in-new-toy/" target="_blank"> Jenna Busch at Legion of Leia</a> that Hasbro opted to solicit a toy based on one of the more exciting scenes in the recent <i>Avengers: Age of Ultron</i> movie. In this particular scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Avengers member Black Widow springs into action by dropping out of the Avenger's Quinjet on a suped up motorcycle. <br /><br />It's a pretty amazing sequence and a scene I look forward to watching repeatedly in the future. It's one of those ideal moments when film manages to capture the magic of the comic book page and translate it into real life. Throughout a progression of Marvel inspired films, Scarlett Johansson has managed to bring the Black Widow character alive on the screen with a nice balance between snark and charm. This moment was created to give her character a well-deserved action spotlight. This makes the scene an ideal choice for a toy play set based on the film.<br /><br />There's only one problem.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EjTYgBM94Yk/VVUtQhg6jLI/AAAAAAAAGJU/8vL7i_4SL7Q/s1600/Cycle%2BBlast%2BQuinjet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="460" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EjTYgBM94Yk/VVUtQhg6jLI/AAAAAAAAGJU/8vL7i_4SL7Q/s640/Cycle%2BBlast%2BQuinjet.png" width="640" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hasbro's play set based on the scene doesn't include Black Widow. It doesn't include her in the box as an action figure, and it doesn't feature her as a member of the Avengers on the cover of the box. This is a huge problem that has been discussed at length on a number of Feminist and Geek sites. If you are interested in their discussion, and you should be, I'd direct you to start with the <a href="http://legionofleia.com/2015/05/black-widow-replaced-in-her-own-scene-in-new-toy/" target="_blank">Legion of Leia</a>&nbsp; and <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/oh-ffs-disney/" target="_blank">The Mary Sue</a> and move on from there. Even though I'm the father of seven year old twin daughters who adore Black Widow as on of the - too few - female super heroes featured on a regular basis, I don't have anything to say from that perspective that hasn't already been said better.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Instead, I thought I'd take a moment to address what I believe is an underlying assumption that informed Hasbro's decision to exclude Black Widow from their offerings. Surprisingly, this isn't the assumption that these toys are "for boys." That may be one of the assumptions over at Hasbro HQ, but I think this falls into the "boys wouldn't want to play with girls as toys" sub-category of that assumption. I think that Hasbro not only assumes that these toys are for boys, but that boys would have no interest in pretending to be Black Widow battling the minions of Hydra and Ultron.<br /><br />They are wrong on so many levels. Way back in the before times, in the not now, when the consensus view of the 21st century was <i>Zardoz</i>... Okay, that time never existed, but let's stick to the before times, in the not now. A time we will call "The Eighties." During this dark and mysterious age, action figures were a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, full sized GI Joe's had been around for a while, but the smaller action figures that would come to dominate the action figure market were relatively new. I don't know if <i>Star Wars</i> action figures were the first of this new line of toy, but they were an early one and they inspired toy makers to create new action figures for kids to play with.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Those toys included a new and exciting line of GI Joe action figures that tied in with an animated TV show of the same name. The first "series" of Joe figures included three characters who were then, and are now, my favorite characters in that line. I played with those toys for hours on end. I pretended to be these characters as they battled COBRA and its nefarious plots. To me, these three characters are my "core Joes." They define who I most liked imagining myself to be. They were <a href="http://www.yojoe.com/action/82/snakeeyes.shtml" target="_blank">Snake Eyes</a>, <a href="http://www.yojoe.com/action/82/stalker.shtml" target="_blank">Stalker</a>, and...in a turn that makes Hasbro's decision to cut a character played by Scarlett Johansson all the more ironic.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.yojoe.com/action/82/scarlett.shtml" target="_blank">Scarlett</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UFPrDUHadOU/VVUxpIffqvI/AAAAAAAAGJg/LxjVSOchhl8/s1600/scarlett%2BData%2BCard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UFPrDUHadOU/VVUxpIffqvI/AAAAAAAAGJg/LxjVSOchhl8/s400/scarlett%2BData%2BCard.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GdLVqH7-89c/VVUxpG0nVzI/AAAAAAAAGJk/D9t94T3tR_Y/s1600/Scarlett%2BGI%2BJoe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GdLVqH7-89c/VVUxpG0nVzI/AAAAAAAAGJk/D9t94T3tR_Y/s640/Scarlett%2BGI%2BJoe.jpg" width="414" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What was the name of the company that made this mysterious female toy that both boys and girls (ages 5 and up) could play with?&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hasbro.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As I mentioned earlier, Scarlett was one of the characters I most liked to role play when I was fighting against Cobra. She had an awesome skill set, just look up and check it out, and she had a hand crossbow. A freakin' hand crossbow!&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So I'd just like to add to the chorus of voices that are pointing out that young girls just as valuable as consumers, fans, and players. That it is also true that there are probably young boys out there who would be eager to pretend to be Black Widow as she defends the world against the forces of Hydra. Heck, I even know a father of seven year old twin girls who would jump at that opportunity. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>&nbsp; http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/05/of-black-widow-and-boys-toys.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-6495953994910746344Thu, 07 May 2015 22:05:00 +00002015-05-07T15:05:05.181-07:00Advanced Dungeons and DragonsComicsDnDDragonDungeons and DragonsGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesVideo GamesA _SnarfQuest_ Adventure Game is on the HorizonI've been a fan of SnarfQuest for quite some time. Larry Elmore's comic tale of a young warrior's quest for fame and fortune as he aspires to become king of his tribe is one of the classic comic strips of <i>Dragon</i> Magazine's heyday. The character first appeared in issue #75 of <i>Dragon. </i>That issue also included a breakdown of some of the Nine Hells and a brief Orcish to Common dictionary for use in your D&amp;D game.<br /><br />Looking back at that issue today, I'm struck by how good this era of <i>Dragon</i> was. Like the first 100 issues of <i>White Dwarf</i>, this era of <i>Dragon</i> magazine was in a period of "pre-professional" creativity. That doesn't mean the magazines weren't professional in presentation, they were, rather than they included content from fans as well as professionals...fans who would become reliable designers in the future. Magazines during this period were melting pots of creativity, and remind me of the Old School Renaissance and <i>Savage Worlds</i> communities. It was also a time when you might find gaming articles written by Fantasy and Science Fiction authors like John M Ford or Katharine Kerr. Many of today's authors discuss how D&amp;D shaped their literary development and allow their creations to be used as game settings, but early gaming was also shaped by authors in a very direct way. <br /><br /><i>SnarfQuest</i> isn't a perfect comic. It's snarky and plays around with Fantasy tropes and featured a less than noble hero. Sometimes the humor works, sometimes it doesn't, but it was clearly a labor of love and I enjoyed it's high concept story filled with Dragons, Orcs, and Androids.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uhH6MoNFdFg/VUva85SBFiI/AAAAAAAAFvY/D0HwitqjU74/s1600/Snarf%2BImage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uhH6MoNFdFg/VUva85SBFiI/AAAAAAAAFvY/D0HwitqjU74/s640/Snarf%2BImage.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />This week, I noticed an advertisement on Steam promoting an adventure game based on the classic comic. The initial graphics capture the feel of the strip pretty well, as can be seen by the image below, and the adventure game format is one I enjoy.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4OyBVeHW3zQ/VUvX58iXCWI/AAAAAAAAFvM/ynKFoLmNEhc/s1600/SnarfQuest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4OyBVeHW3zQ/VUvX58iXCWI/AAAAAAAAFvM/ynKFoLmNEhc/s640/SnarfQuest.jpg" width="640" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am mildly concerned about some elements of the game, from a "will it be fun?" perspective. While the character modeling captures the whimsy of the comic, the animations of movement and dialogue seem a little off in the game play trailer for the game. Speaking of dialogue, the voice acting for the characters in the trailer is not at all close to what my mind's ear created. The dialogue is delivered in an almost emotionless fashion. If this game is going to capture my imagination and get repeated play, that will need to be fixed. The game will get my money regardless, as I want to see a good Snarf game, but it may not get my fervent recommendation if it doesn't change the voice acting. I'd rather just read the dialogue than here the current actors.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eYJvQWf-fD8" width="560"></iframe><i><br /></i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eXzOQc-9x4Q/VUvf3Wakx1I/AAAAAAAAFvo/CP7g2lkOp8s/s1600/SnarfQuest%2BGame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eXzOQc-9x4Q/VUvf3Wakx1I/AAAAAAAAFvo/CP7g2lkOp8s/s400/SnarfQuest%2BGame.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i> </div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/05/a-snarfquest-adventure-game-is-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-959575749692666767Wed, 06 May 2015 02:24:00 +00002015-05-05T19:24:42.295-07:00Advanced Dungeons and DragonsClassics RevisitedDnDDungeons and DragonsGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying games[Classics Revisited: The Best Old D&D Modules for 5th Edition] A Preliminary DiscussionThis is the first in a series of posts. The majority of the subsequent posts will focus on recommended modules, but this one focuses on whether old modules are worth using and how to use them. If you are an experienced DM, you can feel free to skip this entry in the series and wait for the others. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DLKzVOVjks0/VUl7W2XKj9I/AAAAAAAAFu0/bA20tiIge5c/s1600/dandd-next.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DLKzVOVjks0/VUl7W2XKj9I/AAAAAAAAFu0/bA20tiIge5c/s640/dandd-next.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />During the build up to the release of 5th edition <i>Dungeons and Dragons</i>, Mike Mearls and the rest of the D&amp;D team often claimed that one of the guiding principles for the 5th edition team was to make the game backward compatible. Put another way, players who loved prior editions of D&amp;D should be able to still "play that way" with the new edition. <br /><br />Now that I've been playing 5th edition for about a year, I can say with some confidence that I think this is true with regards to the 1st through 3rd editions of the game. Old school (Moldvay/Cook, BECMI, and 2nd Edition) modules are extremely easy to run under the new system with minimal prep on the part of the Dungeon Master. Modules from 3rd edition are similarly easy to convert as well, though the play will "feel" different. This is because high level 3rd edition characters, of the 3.x and <i>Pathfinder</i> variety, are EPIC in their capabilities where 5th edition characters are more modest. It might seem strange to say that high level 5th edition characters are "modestly" powerful, but in comparison to 3.x it's true. I haven't attempted to convert any 4th edition modules, but I think that should be easy as well especially if one uses the "post-Essentials" adventures.<br /><br />As similar in style to older editions as 5th edition is, it has a nice mathematical core that echoes 4th edition but is toned down and has greater variation. In fact, it manages to add the variation of 1st and 2nd edition while maintaining some of the rigid predictability of 3rd and 4th edition. That's quite a feat. I'll focus a future post on some of the elegance of the mechanics of 5th edition for a later post, but it should be stated that the new edition makes "stat inflation" and "magic item proliferation" less important than any edition since 2nd. The amazing thing is that it does so while lacking the <i>Dungeon Crawl Classics</i>-esque funnel effect at low levels.<br /><br />There are a few keys to adapting older edition adventures to the new system.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">1) Stick to the more narrative modules.<br />2) Have your <i>Monster Manual </i>handy.<br />3) NPC are more work than Monsters, but often make the best opponents.</blockquote>There are reasons for each of these recommendations.<br /><br />Narrative modules scale better with 5th edition's experience system. If your players are willing to remain at low levels for extended dungeon crawls, and there is nothing wrong with that, you can run the earlier modules. You will just have to guesstimate when to give advancements. A module like <i>The Keep on the Borderlands</i> scales fine with regard to the encounter difficulty, but players advance in level much faster than old editions and the players might end up with a cake walk if you use the current xp guidelines. <br /><br />Most old adventures, and the Paizo adventures in <i>Dungeon</i>, use very simple stat blocks for monsters. In fact, the stat block is often [Skeletons HP: 8, 6, 9, 3; see MM pg. XX]. You can either make copies of the information before hand, which is what I typically do instead of opening the book, or you can have the book handy. Either works just as easily and requires no conversion. When there is no 1:1 monster, just substitute one you like or use stats for one you like while keeping the monster description from the module.<br /><br />NPCs make the best villains. In 1st and 2nd edition, making NPCs was pretty quick. You decided on a level, rolled HP, picked spells and magic items, and DONE! This process got more complicated with 3rd edition because of all the feats, prestige classes, and item proliferation required to keep the NPCs competitive with the PCs. Not to mention spending all those skill points. <i>Pathfinder</i>, while being merciful on the skill point side, has a lot of options for DMs to resolve. Options are fun for players who get to use their characters for months/years, but for a one to three shot NPC the work isn't often worth the reward for DMs.&nbsp; Making Wizards, Demons, or Dragons for high level PCs could be hours of prep in 3rd edition. There are fewer decisions in 5th, but there are still some meaningful ones, but it's a more enjoyable DM experience for the working Dungeon Master. I put it that way because making characters can be a wonderful time, but when you are time constrained due to work, school, and family a faster process is preferred and 5th edition is faster than 3.x.<br /><br />Having talked about the relative ease with which the modules can be adapted, and providing 3 guidelines with regard to adaptation, it's time to talk about why you should consider using older modules.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">1) There are several available on <a href="http://www.dndclassics.com/" target="_blank">DriveThruRPG</a>.<br />2) They are inexpensive and average $5.<br />3) There are some genuine classics.</blockquote>The rest of this series will be a series of recommendations of modules to use and include discussions of how these modules play in action. The modern player is often different in style to earlier gamers and no module plays "as written." I'll discuss some curveballs that I've seen during my sessions and how they made for even more enjoyable experiences.<br /><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/05/classics-revisited-best-old-d-modules.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-6822080412308196778Wed, 29 Apr 2015 17:37:00 +00002015-04-29T10:37:41.064-07:00GamesGamingHugosRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesMy Hugo Ballot Pre-Ranking -- A Very Preliminary Review of the Ballot with a Touch of Self-Promotion<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://geekeratimedia.com/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SXYK_4s9Czs/VUEWzBet12I/AAAAAAAAFtk/eX3NaBGupIg/s1600/Geekerati%2BLogo.jpg" height="123" width="320" /></a></div><br />This may surprise many of my readers, or at least one of the two people who read my infrequent posts, but I have never been to a WorldCon nor voted for the Hugos before. This is slightly embarrassing for me, since my mentor and dear friend Susan Palwick was one of the organizers for Reno in 2011. At a minimum, that should have been my first WorldCon. But my wife and I were busy in 2011 with 3 year old twin daughters and unable to make the trip up to Reno. <br /><br />That WorldCon marks an interesting demarcation in the history of the convention. It was the last convention before the creation of the Sad Puppies coalition that is now in its third year. I'm not going to comment about Sad Puppies in this post, but I will say that if they did one thing positive it was informing me that I could be a part of the process without attending the event. I had assume, and we all know what happens when we assume, that one had to attend to vote. I thought it was like the Origin Awards where a committee selects the nominees and then the attendees vote. I was wrong, and so this will be my first time voting for the awards.<strong>&nbsp;</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong>I wish that I could attend this year, as I am a big fan of this year's presenters and my mentor will likely be in attendance as well. It has been too long since I have spoken with Susan in person, and the fan boy in me giggles with glee at the chance of chatting with David Gerrold (whom I interviewed on <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geekerati/2013/05/16/david-gerrolds-the-star-wolf--kickstarting-a-series" target="_blank">Geekerati</a>) and Tananarive Due. I had the great honor of interviewing Tananarive and her husband Steven Barnes at a library event in Glendora.<br /><br />I haven't received my packet from Sasquan yet, but I am eager about participating and I wanted to share my Pre-Rankings. There will be a lot of "No Award" votes pretty high on the lists. This is solely because I haven't read the material and not a statement. <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Novel</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong>Ancillary Sword</strong>, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)</li><li><strong>The Dark Between the Stars</strong>, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)</li><li><strong>The Goblin Emperor</strong>, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)</li><li><strong>Skin Game</strong>, Jim Butcher (Orbit UK/Roc Books)</li><li><strong>The Three Body Problem</strong>, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu translator (Tor Books)</li></ul></blockquote>I've only read <i>Skin Game</i> and <i>Ancillary Sword</i> so far, so I don't know what my final vote will be. The lack of <i>Frostborn</i> by Lou Anders is highly disappointing, as is the lack of <i>Steelheart. </i>So far, my ranking would be:<br /><b><br />1) Skin Game</b><br /><b>2) Ancillary Sword</b><br /><b>3) No Award -- because I haven't read the rest.</b><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><small><br /></small> <strong>Best Novella</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong>Big Boys Don’t Cry</strong>, Tom Kratman (Castalia House)</li><li><strong>“Flow”</strong>, Arlan Andrews, Sr. (<em>Analog</em>, 11-2014)</li><li><strong>One Bright Star to Guide Them</strong>, John C. Wright (Castalia House)</li><li><strong>“Pale Realms of Shade”</strong>, John C. Wright (<strong>The Book of Feasts &amp; Seasons</strong>, Castalia House)</li><li><strong>“The Plural of Helen of Troy”</strong>, John C. Wright (<strong>City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis</strong>, Castalia House)</li></ul></blockquote>I haven't read any of these yet, but will when they come out in the packet.<br /><br /><b>1) No Award -- because I haven't read any. </b><br /><b></b><small><br /></small> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Novelette</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong>“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Earth to Alluvium”</strong>, Gray Rinehart (<em>Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show</em>, 05-2014)</li><li><strong>“Championship B’tok”</strong>, Edward M. Lerner (<em>Analog</em>, 09-2014)</li><li><strong>“The Day the World Turned Upside Down”</strong>, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lia Belt translator (<em>Lightspeed</em>, 04-2014)</li><li><strong>“The Journeyman: In the Stone House”</strong>, Michael F. Flynn (<em>Analog</em>, 06-2014)</li><li><strong>“The Triple Sun: A Golden Age Tale”</strong>, Rajnar Vajra (<em>Analog</em>, 07/08-2014)</li></ul></blockquote>I'm not a <i>IGMS</i> or <i>Analog</i> subscriber, so I've only read one of these stories.<br /><br /><b>1) "The Day the World Turned Upside Down"</b><br /><b>2) No Award</b><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">&nbsp;<strong>Best Short Story</strong><br /> <ul><li><strong>“On A Spiritual Plain”</strong>, Lou Antonelli (<em>Sci Phi Journal #2</em>, 11-2014)</li><li><strong>“The Parliament of Beasts and Birds”</strong>, John C. Wright (<strong>The Book of Feasts &amp; Seasons</strong>, Castalia House)</li><li><strong>“A Single Samurai”</strong>, Steven Diamond (<strong>The Baen Big Book of Monsters</strong>, Baen Books)</li><li><strong>“Totaled”</strong>, Kary English (<em>Galaxy’s Edge Magazine</em>, 07-2014)</li><li><strong>“Turncoat”</strong>, Steve Rzasa (<strong>Riding the Red Horse</strong>, Castalia House)</li></ul></blockquote>I've read the <i>Big Book of Monsters</i>, because monsters, and most of <i>Riding the Red Horse</i> (because Pournelle). I haven't read "Turncoat" yet, it's a couple of stories down. Outside of the Burnside article and the Pournelle writings that anthology has been mixed.<br /><br /><b>1) "A Single Samurai"</b><br /><b>2) No Award -- still have to read the other material. </b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Related Work</strong> (1150 nominating ballots, 346 entries, range 206-273)<br /> <ul><li><strong>“The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”</strong>, Ken Burnside (<strong>Riding the Red Horse</strong>, Castalia House)</li><li><strong>Letters from Gardner</strong>, Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)</li><li><strong>Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth</strong>, John C. Wright (Castalia House)</li><li><strong>“Why Science is Never Settled”</strong>, Tedd Roberts (<em>Baen.com</em>)</li><li><strong>Wisdom from My Internet</strong>, Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)</li></ul></blockquote>"The Hot Equations," while in a mixed bag anthology is a pretty radical piece of writing. Not radical in the sense that it is political, but radical in the way that it changes the way you read something. By focusing on Thermodynamics in space ship combat, Burnside revolutionized the way I think about the genre. I'm going to be much more critical of star ship combats in the future, and writers will have to find ways to get me to suspend my disbelief when writing about "stealth" in space. Haven't read the others.<br /><br /><b>1) "The Hot Equations" -- Which you really should read. It would be a shame for Ken Burnside to be overlooked because of politics. He's been an active member of the table top gaming community for years, and his <a href="http://www.adastragames.com/attack-vector-tactical" target="_blank"><i>Attack Vector</i></a> game is remarkable. </b><br /><b>2) No Award</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Graphic Story</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong>Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal</strong>, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Adrian Alphona and Jake Wyatt, (Marvel Comics)</li><li><strong>Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery</strong>, written by Kurtis J. Weibe, art by Roc Upchurch (Image Comics)</li><li><strong>Saga Volume 3</strong>, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics))</li><li><strong>Sex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick</strong>, written by Matt Fraction, art by Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)</li><li><strong>The Zombie Nation Book #2: Reduce Reuse Reanimate</strong>, Carter Reid (The Zombie Nation)</li></ul></blockquote><b>1) Rat Queens -- Because it's great.</b><br /><b>2) Ms. Marvel -- Because it's very good.</b><br /><b>3) Saga --&nbsp; Because it's also really good.</b><br /><b>4) No Award.</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form</strong><br /> <ul><li><strong>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</strong>, screenplay by Christopher Markus &amp; Stephen McFeely, concept and story by Ed Brubaker, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (Marvel Entertainment, Perception, Sony Pictures Imageworks)</li><li><strong>Edge of Tomorrow</strong>, screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, directed by Doug Liman (Village Roadshow, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment; Viz Productions)</li><li><strong>Guardians of the Galaxy</strong>, written by James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, directed by James Gunn (Marvel Studios, Moving Picture Company)</li><li><strong>Interstellar</strong>, screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, directed by Christopher Nolan (Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lynda Obst Productions, Syncopy)</li><li><strong>The Lego Movie</strong>, written by Phil Lord &amp; Christopher Miller, story by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord &amp; Christopher Miller, directed by Phil Lord &amp; Christopher Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, LEGO System A/S, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation (as Warner Animation Group))</li></ul></blockquote>This is a remarkably strong category. I might add a film or two, but I wouldn't take any away. It's much better than last year's list which left off <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2194499/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>About Time </i></a>a slight that demonstrated that the community doesn't watch enough movies. Probably because they are doing so much reading. <br /><br /><b>1) Edge of Tomorrow -- This was not only a very good movie, but it was directed by one of this generation's great directors. Doug Liman inserts a touch of magic into everything he works on.</b><br /><b>2) Guardians of the Galaxy -- One of my daughter's favorite movies, and a testimony to how Space Opera still matters.</b><br /><b>3) The Lego Movie -- This film is amazing.</b><br /><b>4) Captain America: Winter Soldier -- Another fantastic film.</b><br /><b>5) Interstellar -- A film I really liked, but have you seen the competition?</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong><em>Doctor Who:</em> “Listen”</strong>, written by Steven Moffat, directed by Douglas Mackinnon (BBC Television)</li><li><strong><em>The Flash:</em> “Pilot”</strong>, teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg &amp; Geoff Johns, story by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg &amp; Geoff Johns, directed by David Nutter (The CW) (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television)</li><li><strong><em>Game of Thrones:</em> “The Mountain and the Viper”</strong>, written by David Benioff &amp; D. B. Weiss, directed by Alex Graves ((HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)</li><li><strong><em>Grimm:</em> “Once We Were Gods”</strong>, written by Alan DiFiore, directed by Steven DePaul (NBC) (GK Productions, Hazy Mills Productions, Universal TV)</li><li><strong><em>Orphan Black:</em> “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”</strong>, ” written by Graham Manson, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions, Space/BBC America)</li></ul></blockquote>A good list, to be sure, but my own biases are going to show here.<br /><br /><b>1) The Flash -- I cannot praise this show enough. It's hard to capture the tone of this character, especially in an era of GrimDark. Leave it to Geoff Johns, one of the best writers in the comic book run of the character, and Greg Berlanti to get it right. This just demonstrates how TV writers have more control than movie writers.&nbsp;</b><br /><b>2) Game of Thrones -- Great episode.</b><br /><b>3) Grimm -- A wonderful episode from a show that alternates between brilliant and "what the?!" episodes.</b><br /><b>4) Orphan Black -- Very good show.</b><br /><b>5) Doctor Who -- It's won enough don't you think? Still a good episode.</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Editor, Short Form</strong> <br /> <ul><li>Jennifer Brozek</li><li>Vox Day</li><li>Mike Resnick</li><li>Edmund R. Schubert <em>(Withdrew after ballot finalized)</em></li><li>Bryan Thomas Schmidt</li></ul></blockquote>Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Jennifer Brozek both gave me the honor of <a href="http://geekeratimedia.com/2014/09/22/episode-159-discussing-shattered-shields-jennifer-brozek-bryan-thomas-schmidt/" target="_blank">participating in a Geekerati interview</a> discussing their <i>Shattered Shields</i> anthology for Baen. The lack of Johnathan Strahan in this category disappoints me.<br /><br /><b>1) Jennifer Brozek -- Not only has she long been an editor of fiction, but she's a great editor in the rpg industry too. Her gaming connection puts her over the top for me.</b><br /><b>2) Bryan Thomas Schmidt -- His and Jennifer's selections in SS were strong and he has a long history in the genre. Besides, I did mention I got to interview him right?</b><br /><b>3) Mike Resnick -- Hasn't he won everything?</b><br /><b>4) Edmund R. Schubert -- What are you doing withdrawing?</b><br /><b>5) Vox Day&nbsp; </b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Editor, Long Form</strong><br /> <ul><li>Vox Day</li><li>Sheila Gilbert</li><li>Jim Minz</li><li>Anne Sowards</li><li>Toni Weisskopf</li></ul></blockquote>1) Sheila Gilbert -- She's never made the ballot before? What?!<br />2) Toni Weisskopf -- David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, and a list of other reasons.<br />3) Anne Sowards<br />4) Jim Minz<br />5) No Award -- I haven't read any long form fiction edited by Vox Day.<br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Professional Artist</strong><br /> <ul><li>Julie Dillon</li><li>Kirk DouPonce</li><li>Nick Greenwood</li><li>Alan Pollack</li><li>Carter Reid</li></ul></blockquote>There was a time when two people would alternate this award, so it's nice to see some new artists. <br /><br /><b>1) Julie Dillon </b><br /><b>2) Nick Greenwood </b><br /><b>3) Kirk DouPonce </b><br /><b>4) Alan Pollack</b><br /><b>5) Carter Reid&nbsp;</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Semiprozine</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong><em>Abyss &amp; Apex</em></strong>, Wendy Delmater editor and publisher</li><li><strong><em>Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine</em></strong>, Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Association Incorporated, 2014 editors David Kernot and Sue Bursztynski</li><li><strong><em>Beneath Ceaseless Skies</em></strong>, edited by Scott H. Andrews</li><li><strong><em>Lightspeed Magazine</em></strong>, edited by John Joseph Adams, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant</li><li><strong><em>Strange Horizons</em></strong>, Niall Harrison, editor-in-chief</li></ul></blockquote>I subscribe to <i>Lightspeed</i> and none of the others. <br /><br /><b>1) Lightspeed</b><br /><b>2) No Award</b><br /><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Fanzine</strong> <br /> <ul><li><strong><em>Black Gate</em></strong>, edited by John O’Neill <em>(Withdrew after ballot finalized)</em></li><li><strong><em>Elitist Book Reviews</em></strong>, edited by Steven Diamond</li><li><strong><em>Journey Planet</em></strong>, edited by James Bacon, Christopher J Garcia, Colin Harris, Alissa McKersie, and Helen J. Montgomery</li><li><strong><em>The Revenge of Hump Day</em></strong>, edited by Tim Bolgeo</li><li><strong><em>Tangent SF Online</em></strong>, edited by Dave Truesdale</li></ul></blockquote>I'm a big fan of <i>Black Gate</i> and have even been given the honor of writing a post there in 2013. I'd like to write more, but PhD studies and work conflict. The others I don't know about. I do know John withdrew, but I don't recognize his withdrawal as I disagree with his reasoning. <br /><br /><b>1) Black Gate</b><br /><b>2) No Award -- but I'll check the others out.</b><br /><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Fancast</strong> (668 nominating ballots, 162 entries, range 69-179)<br /> <ul><li><strong>Adventures in SciFi Publishing</strong>, Brent Bower (Executive Producer), Kristi Charish, Timothy C. Ward &amp; Moses Siregar III (Co-Hosts, Interviewers and Producers)</li><li><strong>Dungeon Crawlers Radio</strong>, Daniel Swenson (Producer/Host), Travis Alexander &amp; Scott Tomlin (Hosts), Dale Newton (Host/Tech), Damien Swenson (Audio/Video Tech)</li><li><strong>Galactic Suburbia Podcast</strong>, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)</li><li><strong>The Sci Phi Show</strong>, Jason Rennie</li><li><strong>Tea and Jeopardy</strong>, Emma Newman and Peter Newman</li></ul></blockquote>Since Geekerati was never nominated in this category, I'm going to be totally sour grapes and Nuclear No Award this category. I couldn't event get 100 fans? Jeez.<br /><br />Just kidding. I just haven't listened to any of them yet. I may end up as a huge fan of one of them.<br /><br /><b>1) No Award</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Fan Writer</strong> <br /> <ul><li>Dave Freer</li><li>Amanda S. Green</li><li>Jeffro Johnson</li><li>Laura J. Mixon</li><li>Cedar Sanderson</li></ul></blockquote>Don't read any of their writings, but will before I vote.<br /><br /><b>1) No Award</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Best Fan Artist</strong> <br /> <ul><li>Ninni Aalto</li><li>Brad W. Foster</li><li>Elizabeth Leggett</li><li>Spring Schoenhuth</li><li>Steve Stiles</li></ul></blockquote>Will have to check them out.<br /><br /><b>1) No Award.</b><br /><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer</strong> (851 nominating ballots, 220 entries, range 106-229) <small><br />Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2013 or 2014, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)</small><br /> <ul><li>Wesley Chu*</li><li>Jason Cordova</li><li>Kary English*</li><li>Rolf Nelson</li><li>Eric S. Raymond</li></ul></blockquote>Wesley Chu stopped by my <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geekerati/2013/04/11/a-chat-with-wesley-chu-author-kung-fu-master-actor-deat" target="_blank">Geekerati podcast</a>, and I enjoyed his debut novel. The others I will have to read. <br /><br /><b>1) Wesley Chu</b><br /><b>2) No Award</b><br /><br />Any and all "No Awards" are preliminary. I want to vote for those I think best represent the SF/F field that are on the ballot. Looking at past ballots, like last year's film category for example, none are a "perfect" ballot of things I would have nominated. But I've used the nominee process to inform my future reading in the past and will continue to do so. Those things I am familiar with on this ballot, with some small exceptions, are things I respect and enjoy. <br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/04/my-hugo-ballot-pre-ranking-very.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-3031695229057933326Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:22:00 +00002015-04-27T14:23:38.121-07:00BOOM! StudiosCharles M SchulzGamesGamingJody LindkenicnupPeanutsA Personal Statement Why I'm Happy that BOOM! Studios is Publishing Tribute to Charles M. SchulzCharles M. Schulz's PEANUTS comic strip has long been a cornerstone of American Pop Culture. The glimpses into the lives of Charlie Brown and friends have resonated with audiences for decades and now <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/a-new-anthology-will-pay-tribute-to-peanuts-and-charles-schulz/" target="_blank">BOOM! Studios is publishing a celebration</a> of the comic strip for the 65th anniversary of its publication. The contributing artists are being leaked out to the press slowly but surely.<br /><br />I have two deep connections with PEANUTS. The first is an undying love of Snoopy, especially in his WWI Ace persona. Snoopy's battles against the Red Baron entertained me throughout my childhood. As odd as it might sound, I think I became interested in War Games featuring battles between Sopwith Camels and Fokker Dr. 1 aircraft because of the battles I imagined. If someone published a Snoopy vs. the Red Baron set for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wings-War-WWI-Famous-Aces/dp/B00067ID0G" target="_blank">Wings of War</a>, I'd rush out to buy it.<br /><br />My second connection, is my wife Jody Lindke. Jody has a passion for illustration and cartooning. She has been a cartoonist for longer than I've known her, and she was my favorite cartoonist in the school paper long before we met. I loved her <a href="http://www.jodylindke.com/january-2015.html" target="_blank">NICNUP</a> cartoon strip in our college paper, a strip that merged BLOOM COUNTY with PEANUTS to wonderful effect. Like PEANUTS, there was an underlying sadness to many of Jody's jokes. Her<a href="http://www.jodylindke.com/uploads/2/8/0/0/28002995/2150407_orig.jpg" target="_blank"> Bambi strip</a> hits the same ironic sweet spot for me as Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. <br /><br />My wife is a generally cheerful person, though her humor can run sorrowful, but there are three occasions when I've seen Jody's joy light up an entire room. The most recent was when we were able to bring our twin daughters home from the hospital. She glowed the entire trip home. Then there's our wedding day, when we received just enough rain for it to be lucky, saw small birds being born, and witnessed a double rainbow. I'm not kidding. We saw a double rainbow. This is not a reference to the meme.<br /><br />I'm happy to have been partly responsible for these moments where I got to see her filled with love and joy. But the most vivid combination of happiness and pride I've ever seen from Jody was when she was receiving the Charles M. Schulz college cartooning award. Jody was the first woman to receive the award. It was an accomplishment that was solely her own. As is often the case, I felt lucky to be in the same room with Jody. After years of hard work and meeting deadlines. After years of using the meager payments from the school paper and local papers to pay her rent and food bills, her work was being acknowledged by people she admired. Snoopy sparked my imagination when I read his adventures in print, but Snoopy handed Jody her award and that was something truly magical to behold.<br /><br />Because of these two deep emotional connections, I'll be rushing out to buy the book this September.<br /><br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SeY2O3htzAw/VT6nyN0A59I/AAAAAAAAFtM/cQcSORTRYog/s1600/Jody%2BSnoopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SeY2O3htzAw/VT6nyN0A59I/AAAAAAAAFtM/cQcSORTRYog/s1600/Jody%2BSnoopy.jpg" height="395" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Copyright Jody Lindke</td></tr></tbody></table>Addendum: Jody is not a part of the Tribute, but we are very excited for everyone who is. There are some great artists participating who have been announced so far.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/04/a-personal-statement-why-im-happy-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-6241892800543808371Thu, 09 Apr 2015 21:40:00 +00002015-04-09T14:40:31.593-07:00DisneyGamesGamingGaming with KidsInfinityRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesVideo GamesUsing Disney Infinity to Teach Kids to Code<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://studio.code.org/s/infinity/stage/1/puzzle/1g" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zbQaeuiERFU/VSbxOaaVRYI/AAAAAAAAFsc/cJajIs72tnw/s1600/Learn%2Bto%2BCode.png" height="400" width="345" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br />When I was young, my family didn't own any computers. We had an Atari 2600 and a Nintendo NES, but we didn't own any personal computers. Thankfully, I had friends who did. I spent hours playing classic games like <i>Bard's Tale</i> with my friend Sean, and hours playing <i>Maniac Mansion</i> and <i>Zak McCracken</i> with my friend Ron. <br /><br />Who am I kidding? I spent <i>days</i> playing these games, especially <i>Bard's Tale</i>. I still remember the answers to many of the BT riddles and have fond memories of the frustration of encountering our first "spinner."<br /><br />Many of the schools I attended, and I attended 12 schools K-12, had computer labs. I spent a fair amount of time in computer labs fiddling around with <i>Oregon Trail</i> and <i>Summer Games</i>. All of this gaming led me to an interest in programming. My Junior and Senior year of High School I had a Zero Period class in computer programming where we learned Basic and used our knowledge to create our own programs. The first year was spent working on projects that the instructor designed, but during the second year students were supposed to design their own projects. My first computer program was a character creator for <i>Advanced Dungeons &amp; Dragons</i>, but working with my friend Travis we designed character creation programs for <i>Twilight 2000</i> and the <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> role playing games. These programming sessions often lasted into the wee hours of the morning.<br /><br />My senior project was a piece of computer animation that featured a character walking up to a dragon and having the dragon breathe icy breath at the character as it ran away. It was a relatively simple animation in its results, but it took me weeks of one-hour class sessions to program. The dragon graphic was a bit map rendering of the white dragon from the <i>Monster Manual</i> and it took nigh on forever to enter the coordinates in the data file.<br /><br />My program won second place at a computer programming competition at the University of Nevada. I think my dad still has the plaque I won, but the money I won was spent quickly.<br /><br />As much as I liked computer programming as a "hobby," I stopped studying it formally after High School. I decided I wanted to be an attorney and began studying Political Science. This happened after my famous 4-year Semester off from Undergraduate education, something I don't recommend to anyone. I still love Political Science, and am working on a Ph.D. in it, but I have zero interest in becoming an attorney. Had I known as a wee lad that my interests would be when I was older, I'd have continued in Political Science and minored in Computer Science. This is especially irksome now that I'm in the Ph.D. program and am having to take time to refresh on my Calculus using MIT's excellent <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/" target="_blank">Single Variable Calculus</a> class and the <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank"><i>Khan Academy</i></a>'s World of Math refresher. I'm also taking time to learn the <a href="http://www.r-project.org/" target="_blank">R programming language</a> to make myself more marketable. <br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQGOfhsb76o" width="560"></iframe></div><br />It's my frustration at never continuing to expand my programming instruction, even on a personal "hobbyist" level other than learning some HTML, that makes me so excited about the fact that Disney is partnering with <a href="http://studio.code.org/s/infinity/stage/1/puzzle/1" target="_blank">Code.org</a> to use Disney Infinity characters to teach young people how to write computer programs. While I believe that most of the "killer apps" of the future will be designed by creative people who have a broad "Liberal" education, I also believe that the ability to write code will be the future equivalent of being able to type. It's just something you have to be able to do in order to operate in the business environment.<br /><br />I look forward to working through the code challenges with History and Mystery in the coming months. Maybe we'll even replicate some of those late night programming and playing sessions I loved so much in my youth.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/04/using-disney-infinity-to-teach-kids-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-305026028604538817Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:33:00 +00002015-04-01T10:33:49.892-07:00Advanced Dungeons and DragonsDnDDungeon Crawl ClassicsFritz LeiberGamesGamingLankhmarRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsAnother Lankhmar Update: Don't Forget Savage Worlds LANKHMAR!Earlier this week, I shared my excitement that Goodman Games had acquired a license to release adventures that take place in Fritz Leiber's classic <a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/03/lankhmar-dungeon-crawl-classics-way.html" target="_blank">Lankhmar/Nehwon setting</a>. Toward the end of the post, I mentioned that Pinnacle Entertainment Group's <i>Savage Worlds</i> role playing game was the only other game that I thought had the potential to capture the Sword &amp; Sorcery feel of the setting. When I wrote that, I knew that Pinnacle was planning to release their own Lankhmar related products, but I did not know when that release would occur.<br /><br />Now I do. The <i>Savage Worlds</i> setting book for <a href="https://www.peginc.com/savage-lankhmar-city-of-thieves-now-lurking-very-closely/" target="_blank"><i>Lankhmar: City of Thieves</i></a> will go on sale April 14th. At that time, purchasers will be able to pick up copies of the PDF and pre-order the print copy of the book. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.peginc.com/savage-lankhmar-city-of-thieves-now-lurking-very-closely/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bN8P66QqJh8/VRwpxX7JhJI/AAAAAAAAFd4/oelVp-49Jek/s1600/Lankhmar%2BPEG.png" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Pinnacle has also given us a glimpse of what the rules will look like with the "No Honor Among Thieves" rule.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;"><b>No Honor Among Thieves</b></div></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;">Betrayal is a part of life in the City of Thieves. Sometimes a companion double-crosses his mates over a few gold pieces. Other times he might cheat on a friend over the love of a woman. Most of these betrayals are met with a wry smile and a vow to reciprocate at some future date. There is no honor among thieves, after all.</div><div style="margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;"><br />Sometimes the betrayal is more personal. In Lankhmar, whenever a character is betrayed by a close friend or associate (a trusted ally or even another player character—Game Master’s call), he cannot spend a Benny to reroll any opposed defensive action.</div><div style="margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;"><br />If the betrayal is an actual attack (almost assuredly with The Drop) and the victim doesn’t Soak all the wounds and / or remove the Shaken, he must make a Vigor roll versus the damage or go unconsciousness per the Knock Out Blow rules on page 25). He may not spend Bennies on this roll.</div></blockquote>This rule is an example of how easily the <i>Savage Worlds</i> rules set, and in particular it's ability to incorporate "Setting Rules," make it a good fit for the Lankhmar setting.<br /><br />I do have one minor complaint though. The image of Fafhrd in the banner ad above doesn't capture the humor he is often expressed as having in the stories. Fafhrd laughs in the face of danger and is often boisterous in the face of adversity. To be fair, the image looks to take place after a particularly dire moment in the series (no spoiler, but rage would be an appropriate expression), but it is too rare that Fafhrd is show smiling. Thankfully, the Pinnacle website has what must be one of the first illustrations of a happy Fafhrd, made all the more enjoyable because he is too rarely illustrated this way.<br /><br /><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/04/another-lankhmar-update-dont-forget.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-4411542364978426892Sat, 28 Mar 2015 22:40:00 +00002015-03-28T15:40:02.878-07:00DnDDungeon Crawl ClassicsDungeons and DragonsGamesGamingLankhmarRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSavage WorldsTom MoldvayLankhmar the Dungeon Crawl Classics Way<a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/" target="_blank">Goodman Games</a> announced at Gary Con that they have been granted a license to produce Lankhmar themed <i>Dungeon Crawl Classics </i>products. The <i><a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/dccrpg.html" target="_blank">Dungeon Crawl Classics</a></i>&nbsp;role playing game is the first role playing game since the original <i>D&amp;D</i>&nbsp;rules that has been expressly designed to capture the tone and feel of the fiction Gary Gygax highlighted in his famous <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=77&amp;t=27429&amp;sid=b3d87e0c0d8c087c1d016cc40333c709" target="_blank">Appendix N</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdDevUzaDRc/VRcsTkjMqhI/AAAAAAAAFc0/dlIkscr3lVs/s1600/NingaubleCoverMockup020915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdDevUzaDRc/VRcsTkjMqhI/AAAAAAAAFc0/dlIkscr3lVs/s1600/NingaubleCoverMockup020915.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></div><br /><br />Most early post-D&amp;D role playing games fell into three camps. They were either designed to be easier to play versions of D&amp;D that shared some of the inspirations (<i>Tunnels &amp; Trolls</i>&nbsp;falls into this category), designed to emulate more realistic combat and character creation with a consistent world mythology that varied from D&amp;D (<i>Runequest </i>and <i>The Fantasy Trip&nbsp;</i>fall into this category), or D&amp;D micro-improvement clones (<i>Arduin</i>&nbsp;and <i>Warlock</i>) fall into this category. None of these games quite fit into the category of "<a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/9/" target="_blank">Fantasy Heartbreaker</a>" coined by Ron Edwards, for reasons that become clear when one reads the full Edwards piece.<br /><br />Many of these games, <i>The Fantasy Trip </i>I'm looking at you, were designed to present consistent mechanics that emulated some kind of physics. In moving this direction, these games actually moved away from Appendix N influence and became something else. <i>D&amp;D </i>was a hodgepodge of influences, all narrative. <i>Runequest </i>too had a hodgepodge of influences, but one of them was SCA combat experience. Basing combat on real world experience is a solid design goal, but it isn't a design goal driven by an attempt to emulate the fantasy in Appendix N. It's hard to imagine someone attempting Fafhrd's escape from the Ice Witches by strapping fireworks to his skis using the <i>Runequest</i>&nbsp;or <i>The Fantasy Trip</i>&nbsp;rules. They weren't free form enough.<br /><br />To be fair, it's hard to imagine that happening in AD&amp;D either. I can see it happening in Moldvay/Cook Basic, but interestingly enough that game actually falls into that first category of post-D&amp;D design. All of this brings us back to <i>Dungeon Crawl Classics</i>. It is very easy to imagine this game inspiring such a scene, and Doug Kovac's strong focus on what Jeff Vandermeer calls "The Weird" only adds to the seeming natural connection between DCC and Lankhmar. There is only one other game that I think can capture the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser well, and that's <i><a href="https://www.peginc.com/tag/lankhmar/" target="_blank">Savage Worlds</a>.</i>&nbsp;A game that I believe also has a license to make Lankhmar based products. The <i>Savage Worlds</i>&nbsp;game will likely, in my completely uninformed opinion, focus more on the street level heroics of Nehwon and so there will be little cannibalism between the two games. In fact, I think there might be some great synergy between publishers.<br /><br />Goodman Games is running a contest which will allow people to playtest their upcoming adventure at Gen Con.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QddccMGKNMI/VRcoAK9EC_I/AAAAAAAAFco/4qHXpY076_0/s1600/LankhmarContest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QddccMGKNMI/VRcoAK9EC_I/AAAAAAAAFco/4qHXpY076_0/s1600/LankhmarContest.jpg" height="640" width="492" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As an aside, I think that the DCC cover is a nice homage to the old <i>Fantastic</i>&nbsp;cover that featured Ningauble, Fafhrd's weird and enigmatic patron.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzcQOeAM4AI/VRcsmvbc8nI/AAAAAAAAFc8/IfeIgpbrhzw/s1600/Adepts%2BGambit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzcQOeAM4AI/VRcsmvbc8nI/AAAAAAAAFc8/IfeIgpbrhzw/s1600/Adepts%2BGambit.jpg" height="400" width="291" /></a></div><br />http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/03/lankhmar-dungeon-crawl-classics-way.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-1734412357761420991Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:34:00 +00002015-03-23T15:34:16.274-07:00GamesGamingGaming with KidsMoviesRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesSkylanders vs. Disney Infinity SAVAGE WORLDS Style: A Father After my Own HeartWhen I first started this blog it was called Cinerati due to my love of film. I started the blog because a friend had shared an article from the conservative website National Review Online that was criticizing an entry in Quentin Tarantino's <i>Kill Bill</i> saga. I found the article to be reactionary and not very well versed in the genre the author was criticizing. <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/208978/kurosawa-kills-bill-thomas-s-hibbs" target="_blank">The article</a> seemed to me to be a typical "Culture War" and "High Art" claptrap that raises my ire. I was especially irked by the phrase, "<br /><div>these films are but vulgar distortions of Japanese film culture." <br /><br />Someone on the internet was wrong, and I needed to fire my own salvo off into the battlefield. Never mind that the author of the piece was also arguing something that I agree with, that Akira Kurosawa's films are brilliant. The professor had insulted one of my favorite directors and<a href="http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2004/03/in-shadow-of-kurosawa-by-christian.html" target="_blank"> I was going to the mattresses!</a> Even in those days, I was careful to be polite in my criticisms, but I was enjoined in battle.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Interestingly, I didn't end up writing as many film related posts as I wanted and ended up writing far more posts about other geek related things. There was a short period where there were other authors on the site, but that eventually faded and I was left as the sole author on the site. I wrote about whatever I wanted, and in 2008 what I wanted to write about took a pretty significant shift when my twin daughters were born. <br /><br />Oh, I still wanted to write about everything I had been writing about, but now I couldn't wait to write about my gaming experiences with my daughters. Given my busy schedule between work and school, I haven't written about gaming with History and Mystery as much as I'd like. Heck, I haven't even gamed with them as much as I'd like. I have played a lot of games with them though and hope to share more of those experiences as time presents itself. I am particularly excited to share our first <i>Heroquest</i> experience and discuss how badly my daughter History wants to play the <i>Indiana Jones Role Playing Game</i>. She wants to play it more than almost any other game I own.</div><div><br /></div><div>All of this is my way of saying, expect to see more writing about gaming with kids in the coming months/years. I'll be mixing it up with content about gaming in general, including some 5th edition and Savage Worlds modifications. <br /><br />Why the sudden inspiration you ask? Well...I saw a father running a Savage Worlds skirmish between Skylander and Disney Infinity characters with his kids and that is pretty awesome.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bHei1ojVNH8" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/03/skylanders-vs-disney-infinity-savage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-2338068509499681416Thu, 19 Mar 2015 00:07:00 +00002015-03-18T17:07:53.282-07:00Board GamesBoardgamesDnDDungeonDungeon Crawl GamesDungeons and DragonsGamesGamingHistoryThe DUNGEON! Boardgame at 40Dave Megarry has recently posted an interview he did regarding how the <i>Dungeon!</i>&nbsp;board game came to be published (HT Zach H of the ever excellent <a href="http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Zenopus Archives</a> blog). In the interview, Megarry discusses the inspirations behind the game, how he put together the first prototype, and the game's journey into publication.<br /><br />I can still remember the first time I played the <i>Dungeon!</i>&nbsp;game. I was at my friend Mark's house, this was before the Sweet Pickles Wars of the early 80s, and he had a copy of the purple edition of the game.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a3D9LWtjzCE/VQoQz6qYDKI/AAAAAAAAE78/1AdOwYNakQs/s1600/Dungeon%2BPurple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a3D9LWtjzCE/VQoQz6qYDKI/AAAAAAAAE78/1AdOwYNakQs/s1600/Dungeon%2BPurple.jpg" height="400" width="325" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I loved the game, but couldn't easily find a copy. I played a couple more times with Mark, we even added some of the alternate characters from <i>Dragon</i>&nbsp;magazine which we read about in the <i>Best of Dragon vol. 1</i>. It was a fun game. It's a bit cutthroat and has player elimination, which can be a nasty combination, but I've been happy to see that the game continues to receive updated releases. I own three or four editions of the game and am looking forward to playing the latest iteration, the one with the cartoony box art.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5yV4SKtHew/VQoSP6_MrhI/AAAAAAAAE8E/SmTQsOkWREY/s1600/Dungeon%2B2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v5yV4SKtHew/VQoSP6_MrhI/AAAAAAAAE8E/SmTQsOkWREY/s1600/Dungeon%2B2014.jpg" height="273" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Returning to the interview though, it's nice to see living history information about role playing and board games. Too often the "history" people know about the industry is more hearsay, gossip, and opinion than history. This can be true of living history as well, but at least the hearsay, gossip, and opinion are first hand.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3VQTubyznsA" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/03/the-dungeon-boardgame-at-40.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-2877616178986917658Wed, 18 Mar 2015 15:40:00 +00002015-03-18T08:40:41.036-07:004th EditionDnDDungeons and DragonsGame DesignGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesAsymmetry and Class Design in RPGs<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N-SqLDTUzX4/VQmbqCEBDEI/AAAAAAAAE7o/pTJesoQSESQ/s1600/DnDclasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N-SqLDTUzX4/VQmbqCEBDEI/AAAAAAAAE7o/pTJesoQSESQ/s1600/DnDclasses.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51749179@N00/3548847061/" target="_blank">Stuart Robertson</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />In the early days of role playing games, there was a lot of push back against class based games like Dungeons &amp; Dragons. Critics didn't like the inflexibility of classes and believed that they were overly restrictive to player options. This criticism still exists today in the debate between skill based versus class based games, but as strong as these debates seem today they are muted versions of games past.<br /><br />I believe there are a couple of reasons why the debate has become less heated over time. The first reason is that class based games have expanded the options available to various classes. Most class based games allow Wizards to use swords and armor, though they might have to forgo certain other advantages to do so. The second reason is that the underlying logic behind having class based games, as articulated by J. Eric Holmes in his classic <i>Fantasy Role Playing Games, </i>is that classes were created to foster teamwork and that they are very good at creating fun shared experience play. One of the advantages of table top role playing games is their ability to foster friendship, and one of the best ways they do this is through the synergies created by soft-asymmetrical classes. A final reason I believe that the debate has become muted is that modern class based games are often even more asymmetrical in play than earlier ones, even as the mechanics seemed to become more symmetrical.<br /><br />Where different classes played slightly differently, often using wildly different mechanics, in early class based games, in modern class based games players can choose to play entirely different game experiences. How so? In <i>Dungeons &amp; Dragons 3.x, </i>players can choose to play a tactical miniatures game, a skill-intensive dungeon crawl, or a narrative storytelling role playing game. These are all potentially completely different experiences. You could do this with earlier editions of the game? Yes, you could. What makes 3.x different is that you can play these three ways, plus you can play a pub running simulation where you never interact with other players, a magic item design factory game, an art dealership game, or a mercantile simulation. Interestingly, with the exception of the magic design factory game, you can do all of these as solo game play experiences. The 3.x game system has mechanics that allow for simulated economy games. All you need is to take your character with a high Craft(Beer) and have that character make decisions about what kind of beer her or she wants to make, buy the supplies, make the rolls and you know how many cp, sp, or gp the character earns each week. You can do this until the character dies of old age.<br /><br />If an economic Sim is what you want to play 3.x can accommodate you. Come to think of it, when I look at most of the complaints against 4e they actually come down to a complaint about the reduction of asymmetrical play more than anything else. You can narratively role play the crap out of 4e. You can free-form play it without miniatures. You can story tell with it. There are tons of game design options as you add more sourcebooks. What you cannot do, is run an inn using the basic mechanics of the game.<br /><br />This trend of asymmetrical play in D&amp;D, and in RPGs, started early. You can look at the War Machine and Dominion rules in the old BECMI <i>Dungeon &amp; Dragons</i>&nbsp;game, GURPS, <i>Champions 4th Edition</i>,&nbsp;or <i>Runequest</i>. These games all have mechanics that allow for simultaneous asymmetrical play experiences. Not just the soft-asymmetry of classes having defined roles, but actual different play. <br /><br />If you want more discussion of asymmetry in game play, here is a video by Extra Credit discussing asymmetry in computer games. It inspired this post and has me thinking about whether I've personally experienced periods of simultaneous and asymmetrical play in any past campaigns and wondering if you have any stories of your own experiences of asymmetrical play to share. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SQhxtfKH1f8" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/03/asymmetry-and-class-design-in-rpgs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6591530.post-11710439559990772Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:44:00 +00002015-01-27T08:44:50.090-08:00Comic Book MoviesComic BooksFantastic FourGamesGamingRole Playing Gamesroleplaying gamesIntrigued by 20th Century Fox's FANTASTIC FOURI've fluctuated in and out of being a fan of Marvel's iconic family superhero team The Fantastic Four. I love reading some of the original stories due to their raw Kirby-ism. Similarly, I enjoy much of the John Byrne era for the way it incorporated X-men style soap opera drama to the book. And the Waid/Wieringo era is wildly entertaining. As a whole though, the Richards family has always seemed a little out of place in the Marvel Universe. Sure Reed stopped Galactus, but that victory merely highlights the separation. The Richards family are first and foremost explorers who encounter cosmic entities of vast power and keep them destroying mankind through a combination of scientific know-how and a never-say-die spirit. <br /><br />The key point here is that the Richards (and Grimm) are explorers. They are Marvel's version of the <a href="http://www.cosmicteams.com/cosmic/challengers.html" target="_blank">Challengers of the Unknown</a>, another Kirby creation, with the addition of superpowers and foes the like that only Superman would encounter in DC. As great as the powers of the Fantastic Four are, they pale before Galactus, Annihilus, Ronan, and Kang. When the FF books are at their best, they focus on the super-science, exploration, and family elements. When they are at their worst, the writers portray the team as a superteam more like the Avengers than the explorers they are.<br /><br />Neither the<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109770/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_147" target="_blank"> Roger Corman</a>, nor the more recent Chris Evans vehicle, captured the team in all of its glory. The Corman movie gets some things right, but it also gets so much wrong. Similarly, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffud are perfect casting for their characters, but the interaction with Doom was off and don't get me started on the Silver Surfer film. I really wanted to like that movie, and I own it, but it just falls flat. With these failures, I wasn't surprised the 20th Century Fox would attempt something completely new with an "update" to the franchise. Like most fans, I was baffled by the choices they were making. The actors cast in the film have talent as performers, but they somehow didn't match what my concept of this team should be.<br /><br />Then I saw today's teaser trailer. Now I'm intrigued. It looks like the movie will be focusing on a Challengers of the Unknown style narrative, and that is where the FF really shine. I know it's just a teaser, and that teaser's always look good, but I'm willing to give the film a chance. It may not be THE Fantastic Four, but it might just be A Partially-Exciting Four. Besides, the final shot of the trailer is just so STAR TREK V that if the film is terrible, it may just be terrible in the best ways.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/e-BVs-KCSiA" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Now to decide what game system to use when I convert the film into a campaign.http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2015/01/intrigued-by-20th-century-foxs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian Lindke)0